The Revenge of Subject Zero
by AmityN7
Summary: Years after her horrific childhood Jack is still haunted by memories of Pragia. But when her fiancee Miranda Lawson takes her on vacation to Illium to finally meet her twin sister Oriana the two make a startling discovery that will force Jack to confront the demons of her past one final time.
1. Subject Zero's First Kill

**Note- This story is a sequel to "Shepard and Liara Versus the Alliance" which I encourage you to read. However don't worry, you won't have to read it to understand what's going on here. **

**This story picks up one month later...**

* * *

**The Year 2173**

"Fight!"

The word sent chills down the young girl's spine and her heart began to race as the restraints around her wrists were removed. There was a crowd of kids around her forming a ring. Some of them remained silent with fear evident on their dirty faces. Others howled in rage like a pack of wild animals. She stayed silent, they had never before let her out of her restraints outside of her room or the lab. This level of freedom was foreign to her and she turned back to the guard with wide eyes. "Fight, girl!" He repeated "Or there will be hell to pay."

She just shook her head no and the man slapped her hard across the face leaving a red mark and sending her crashing to the floor. Her teeth sunk painfully into her tongue when she landed and the taste of blood filled her mouth. "Get up and fight, Zero. Now!" The guard ordered.

Jack stumbled back to her feet and gave one last hesitant look to the guard before glancing over his shoulder. Dr. Nicholas Cardo was standing just outside the ring watching her with intense interest. A scowl plastered across his ugly balding head. Jack looked up to the guard one final time. "Please." she muttered.

She was rewarded with a hard shove that pushed her out into the center of the ring. The crowd parted and a second guard tossed another child on to the floor in front of Jack. He looked older than her but not by much. She guessed the boy was 13. The boy's head was shaved which made Jack jealous as she blew her filthy brown hair from her eyes. They expected her to fight him, to use her biotics and demonstrate the effects of their experiments.

Jack had no idea what a normal childhood is like but she knew it was nothing like being strapped to a metal chair for hours every day while doctors injected her with syringes and forced her to lift things with the power she never wanted. Or being beaten and raped by the doctors after they tossed her into her small room and left her to cry herself to sleep curled up in a little ball under her desk. But she knew what awaited her if she didn't do what they wanted so she swallowed her nerves and lunged at the boy.

Her biotics flared as she tackled the bald headed boy to the ground. She charged her fists and brought them down on his face before he rolled over on top of her and seized her wrists. The boy had a strange mixture of rage and terror in his eyes as her wrapped his hand around her slender neck and started to squeeze. He started slamming the back of her head against the hard ground and Jack's face started to turn red. In desperation she grabbed the boy's head and pulled him in close before sinking her teeth into his ear and biting it off in with a fierce growl. The kid screamed in pain and released her as he fell to the floor clutching at his bleeding wound.

Jack spit the ear in her mouth on to the floor. Blood trickled down her chin as she looked to Doctor Cardo again for any sign that this could be over but his expression was unchanged. The guard picked up the howling boy off the ground and shoved him back towards Subject Zero. He threw a wild punch towards her that clocked Jack in the jaw. She stumbled back and her rage instinctively unleashed a powerful storm of biotics. She screamed as she threw all her power at the boy, tossing him back to the cold hard floor. She charged at him with a glowing fist raised but he kicked up into her gut and before she could counter the boy tackled her.

They rolled around on the ground screaming and clawing at each other like animals. Jack sent out another burst of energy that pushed the boy away from her. Once they were both back on their feet he ran at her but she was ready this time and threw the best shockwave she could muster at him. The boy flew up in the air and came down funny on his leg bending it outwards unnaturally and snapping the bone.

The crowd of children surrounding Jack grew silent as the bleeding boy weeped on the floor and clutched at his bleeding wound where his ear used to be and at the bone poking out of his leg. "Did I win?" Jack asked the Doctor.

Doctor Cardo shook his head. "The fight's not over, Subject Zero. Finish him."

Jack's biotics fizzled out. "What?" she whimpered.

"Kill him, Zero!"

She looked back at the boy on the ground. Cardo could see her hesitance so with a quick command on his omni-tool he sent a shock to the collar around Jack's neck. She cried out in pain and fell to her knees before the electrocution ceased. Her hands were shaking as she summoned her biotics again and advanced on the boy. Tears filled Jack's eyes as she wrapped her skinny fingers around the boy's throat and attempted to strangle him but she soon found she couldn't do it when the boy squirmed and thrashed under her hold. She charged a fist and smashed it down on her opponents face stunning him and splitting her knuckles open.

The ring of kids around Jack stared in silence and terror as she continued bringing her fists down on the boy's face with her eyes shut as hot splashes of blood sprayed on her face. Finally she stopped and opened her eyes to find the boy's face was so beaten she could no longer recognize him but she could still hear the ragged sound of him gasping for air. She began to sob and looked back up to Cardo yet again. "Please...Please don't make me..." Her sentence was cut off by another painful jolt of electricity from her collar. When the shock left her she slowly wrapped her hands around the boy's neck again and hesitantly squeezed. The beaten kid tried his best to squirm free but he was too weak and after several agonizingly long moments he fell still and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Jack lower lip quivered, she was too young to have already taken her first life. Some of the other children started to cry along with her. Doctor Cardo strolled towards the young girl with his hands folded behind his back.

"D-Did I do good?" Jack asked.

"No." Cardo answered. He reached behind him and randomly grabbed another child and threw her to the ground in front of Jack. "Again. And this time you will use your biotics properly, Zero!"

* * *

Jack's eyes jolted open and her chest heaved as she gasped for air. For a second she didn't register where she was so she jumped out of bed and felt the cold air on her naked body. Slowly she recognized the familiar sight of her bedroom and her heart stopped beating out of her chest. Her whole body was in a cold sweat as she sat back down on the side of her bed and buried her face in her hands.

A soft hand caressed her back and snaked up around her shoulders before she felt a pair of full lips press against her neck. "Another one?" Miranda asked.

"Yeah." Jack admitted.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

The convict shook her head. "No."

Miranda sighed. "Jack, please let me help you."

Jack turned around a placed a long loving kiss on Lawson's cheek. "You do help me. But some of this shit... It's just better staying in my head. Trust me, cheerleader."

"Was it your students again?" Miranda wiped her tired eyes clear and moved to sit next to her lover.

"No. Just drop it."

Lawson took her hand. "We're going to be married soon. You can't just ask me to drop it when I know how much it's hurting you."

Jack stayed silent and Miranda wrapped her arms around her and dragged them both back down to the mattress and pulled the covers over them both as she spooned her fiancee. Lawson nuzzled her face against the back of Jack's neck and planted another kiss. They stayed like this in silence for awhile and Lawson had started to drift back to sleep before her lover finally spoke her mind. "I was twelve years old the first time I killed someone."

Miranda woke back up immediately. "You can't blame yourself for what happened at that facility. It was never your fault."

"I don't blame myself. I blame those fucking assholes who raped me, who tortured me and who forced me to choke the life out of another kid...and the really fucked up thing is that after a while they made me enjoy it."

Miranda held her closer. She knew Jack had been through hell on Pragia but every time the convict opened up about it the stories always seemed to get worse. She hated how much the woman she loved had suffered through as a child and she hated herself for ever being a part of the organization who did it to her. "Do you remember the names of any of the doctors at the facility?"

"Just one." Jack answered. "Doctor Cardo. There were a bunch of those bastards but Cardo was the worst of them all." The convict smiled. "But I fucked him up pretty good on my way out. I ripped one of the bastard's arms off when I escaped. The one thing I take comfort in is the image of that asshole bleeding out where I left him."

"All that's over now, Jack."

"I know. I guess I thought blowing up that place would have given me closure and all that shit."

"It didn't?" Miranda asked.

"No."

Miranda rolled Jack over so they were facing each other. She had almost expected to find tears in her lover's eyes but her gaze was vacant. "I promise that I'll find a way to make it right."

"You can't. No one can."

Lawson caressed her cheek. "For you I could do anything. You want closure? I'll find it for you."

The convict forced a smile and shut her eyes while Lawson fell asleep with her arms still wrapped around Jack

* * *

Jack awoke in an empty bed. She rubbed her eyes clear as she sat up. She glanced over to the nightstand and smiled at the diamond ring resting there. She picked up her engagement ring and slipped it on her finger. Jack didn't really buy in to the whole jewelry thing but Miranda had picked out a truly beautiful ring.

She jumped out of bed and grabbed a fresh pair of panties and a plain white tanktop which she quickly changed into. The convict went to the mirror and saw that she had a serious case of bed head. The one thing she hated most about having a full head of hair was all the bullshit maintenance she was expected to do with it. She shrugged, left her bedroom and padded into the kitchen.

Miranda Lawson was already changed into her catsuit and had her back to the tattooed woman. Jack never did tire of the sight of Lawson's backside so she stole a glance at her rump as she sat down at the kitchen island. Miranda looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Good morning, Jack."

"What the hell are you doing, princess?"

Lawson turned around with a plate of food in her hands. "Making you breakfast." She smiled as she set the plate of waffles in front of Jack.

"Uh...thanks. Since when do you make me breakfast?"

"Since now." Miranda answered and sipped on the cup of tea in her hand as she sat opposite Jack.

The tattooed biotic narrowed her eyes as she took a bite of waffles and she moaned. "Fuck." she said with her mouth still full. "This is amazing."

Miranda glared at her open mouth when she chewed and Jack rolled her eyes and made a show of chewing with her mouth closed that made Lawson smile. "I'm glad you think so."

"So what is it?" Jack asked after she swallowed her first bite.

"What?"

"What is it that you want that you need to butter me up with waffles for?"

"I can't make breakfast for my fiancee without having an ulterior motive?"

Jack glared at her and forked another bite into her mouth. "So I'm wrong?" She asked.

"Well actually..." Miranda began making her lover chuckle. "I was hoping that you might take a vacation with me."

"Damn, you don't need to warm me up to that idea. Where you wanna go?"

"Illium."

"Alright." Jack said as she continued eating. "Why there?"

"Oriana lives there. And i'd like for you two to finally meet before we get married."

Jack scrunched up her nose. "Shit, why?"

"She's the only family I have."

The convict let out a sigh. "Fine."

"Really? Just like that?"

"If it's important to you than fuck it, I'll meet her. Plus it'll be good to get away from the Alliance."

Miranda smiled. "Thank you, Jack."

Suddenly Rahna Berk wandered into the kitchen wearing nothing but one of Kaidan's t-shirts and a set of underwear. "Hey guys." she greeted them as she took a seat next to Jack.

Miranda turned around and grabbed the pot of coffee she was making and poured a mug for Rahna. The dark skinned woman accepted the mug with a smile. "Thanks, Miranda."

"My pleasure. "

"Sorry for crashing here again. But this house is so much better than the crap officer housing at HQ."

"We know." Jack said.

"It's no trouble. And It's nice to see Kaidan with someone..." Miranda searched for the word.

"That isn't a total fucking bitch." Jack finished her lover's thought and Rahna giggled.

"Well I'm glad to hear I'm not a total fucking bitch." She said with a smile as she sipped on her coffee.

Then Kaidan made his way in to the room already dressed in his uniform. "Morning ladies." he greeted them then looked at Rahna and Jack. "Why aren't you two dressed?"

"We have the day off dumbass!" Jack said.

Kaidan's eyes widened. "Oh...right."Miranda shook her head and handed Alenko a cup of coffee.

"So have you two settled on a date?" Rahna asked.

Jack arched an eyebrow. "A date?"

"For the wedding." She clarified.

Miranda chuckled. "I don't think we're going to be doing anything grand."

"You surprise me." Kaidan teased.

"As long as it's got booze, Miranda in a dress and a nice bed nearby that sounds like a pretty damn good wedding to me. Hell, i'm even flexible on the bed. A nice hard floor is good enough." Jack said.

"How very romantic, Jack." Miranda said with a smile.

"I'm with Jack." Rahna said. "Big weddings suck. Only the people you really care about should be there. My wedding was this gaudy monstrosity which it turns out was a pretty good representation of the marriage that followed." She chuckled.

"I just can't believe my girls are finally getting married!" Kaidan said "They grow up so fast. Seems like only yesterday they were pretending to hate each other and sneaking off to have sex in a utility closet at work behind my back."

"We never had sex at work!" Miranda cried.

"Oh shut up, cheerleader. We did that all the time." Jack forked the final bite of her breakfast into her mouth. "We still do that all the time."

Miranda shut Jack's mouth as she chewed with one finger under her chin. "Well...only when there's nothing important going on." she admitted before turning to Kaidan, "I have good news for you."

"Oh?" Kaidan said as he sipped on his coffee and took a seat next to Rahna who smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

"Jack and I are visiting Oriana on Illium so we'll be out of your hair for a few days."

Kaidan smiled. "You know I love having you two around. But it'll be nice to have some silence for a change when i'm trying to go to bed."

"If all your doing is sleeping while we're away i'm gonna be very disappointed in you." Jack said and winked at Rahna.

Kaidan laughed. "Enjoy your trip."

"We will."

* * *

**Illium **

Oriana Lawson sat near the stage in one of her university's large lecture halls. Thanks to Miranda she now attended one of the finest universities in the galaxy that was still standing after the reapers, Nos Astra University. While most schools were still closed down across the galaxy Nos Astra University had been one of the first to open it's doors following the war and hopeful students and professors alike flocked to the school. Now almost every brilliant mind on Illium could be found on the school's campus.

Today Ori's professor had dragged her class to some boring lecture by some old doctor who taught some of the upper level science courses at the school could babble on about something. Oriana couldn't focus on that now, not while Chris Wagner sat just one row in front of her. The blonde haired boy rested his bored head on one hand and Oriana let out a sigh.

Chris turned his head and smiled at her and Ori's heart melted as she blushed. "This is stupid." He said to her.

"Totally. So stupid." She agreed with a dumb smile on her face.

The boy smirked and turned back around. Oriana shifted her attention to the stage as the old bald doctor hobbled on to the stage. She guessed he was in his late 50s. "Welcome students. My name is Doctor Nicholas Moser. Perhaps you've seen me around campus. " He turned around and brought up a large hologram display that projected a generic human form. "Today i'm going to be discussing humanity's untapped biotic potential." The doctor said.

Then Oriana noticed something weird about the speaker as he raised his arms to gesture to the hologram. One of them was fake.

* * *

**Notes- And so begins my final Miranda and Jack side story before "Rise of the Asari" Thanks to ReavansMask for giving me some much needed feedback! So I hope you enjoyed the first part. There's gonna be even more glimpses into Jack's past in the coming chapters. Please tell me what you thought in the reviews and have an amazing day! **


	2. Maid of Honor

**Sydney Australia**

**The Year 2166**

For only sixteen years old Miranda Lawson was by all meanings of the word, impressive. Top of her class in every academic field, bioticlly gifted despite her young age and pretty much everything she picked up she could master in half the time of any other child her age. Despite her youth Miranda already attended university with students much older than herself, which ensured she had no real friends to speak of with the exception of Niket. That didn't bother her, friends were an unwanted distraction and children her age were all so remarkably stupid and uninteresting to her. But Miranda wasn't just alone at school but she usually found herself alone at home as well.

Her whole life was dedicated to the pursuit of making her father proud and living up to his expectations but Henry Lawson was a difficult man to please and an even harder man to make proud. Recently he hardly even acknowledged his daughter but Miranda had just received her quarter marks from school and she was hopeful her grades would provide her with the recognition she craved.

She stepped inside her home and dropped her knapsack to the floor before looking around. "Father!" she cried out as she continued to look around only to come up empty. After exhausting all possible rooms in her large home Miranda turned her attention to Henry's private lab which was housed in a separate building behind their home.

She stepped out the backdoor and jogged past their pool on her way to the building which was big enough it could be confused for a second house. She found the door's display green instead of it's usual red and opened up the lab. Miranda clutched her grade report close to her chest as she slowly made her way inside. She had only ever been in her father's lab a handful of times and it always blew her away, monitors and large glass chambers lined the wall and Miranda caught a glimpse of something floating inside one of them. She inched towards the tube like glass chambers and leaning in close to see what was housed inside the green liquid. Lawson jumped back when she found a small human fetus growing inside with many different tubes hooked up to the small developing body.

Miranda looked inside some of the other tubes and found the same unsettling discovery. All of them had a holographic display that appeared to monitor the conditions of the babies inside. Many of the displays showed flatlined heart rhythms. She had no idea what her father was doing growing children but she knew better than to ask him. She continued to search for him inside the large laboratory. She found him working on his terminal with various lab equipment beside him. "Father?" she said.

"What is it now, Miranda?!" Henry spat as he spun around in his chair.

Her posture stiffened. "I'm...home from school."

"Yes so I see." He spun his chair around and faced his back to his daughter. "I thought I told you never to come in here."

Lawson's confidence began to slip away. "I received my grade report today."

"Did you?" Henry sounded as uninterested as he was.

"My marks are quite good." Her father didn't say a word but continued working. "Would you like to see them?"

"Can't you see i'm busy?" He said.

Miranda's heart sunk and she franticly searched for something else to discuss. She took a few steps forward and looked at her father's terminal. "What's Project Oriana?" She asked reading the project name off the screen.

"None of your business." He answered.

"Maybe I could help you with it?" She offered.

Henry laughed. "If you could I wouldn't need the project in the first place. Now please, girl leave me alone."

Miranda's shoulders sunk and she took another step towards her father's work station. "But I could..." suddenly she tripped over herself and she went crashing into a set of beakers Henry had lined up next to his terminal. The glass lab equipment shattered on the floor and a few chunks of glass cut and buried into the flesh of Miranda's long legs when she fell on top of the sharp shards.

"Goddammit! What have you done now!" Henry screamed as he knelt to the ground and scooped up the shattered remains of his equipment ignoring his wounded daughter.

Tears welled in the young girl's eyes as she clutched down to her bleeding legs. "I'm sorry, father!" she cried and moved to assist him but Henry slapped her hands away.

"You've done enough. I can only hope your sister will not be as big of a disappointment as you've turned out to be."

"Sister?"

"Get out of here! I never want to see you inside my lab again!" He screamed.

"I'm..." Miranda stammered.

"Leave." He ordered. "Stupid girl." Henry muttered as he continued to clean his daughter's mess.

Miranda scrambled to her feet and picked up her grade report off the ground and limped back into her home with blood running down her legs. She sat down in the kitchen and wiped away the few tears she had shed from her cheeks before moving to tend to her injuries. She took hold of a large chunk of glass buried in her thigh and gritted her teeth as she pried it out and tossed it in the nearby waste basket. Her leggings were split open and stained with blood, she'd have to change. She picked her grade report back up and didn't bother taking one last look at her marks before tossing it in the trash too.

* * *

**Illium 2188**

Miranda typed in the lock code they had been given at the front desk and their hotel room door slid open. "After you." She said with a smile to Jack who had both the tiny bag she packed gripped in one hand and Miranda's almost comically large bag slung over her shoulder.

Jack stumbled inside their large suite and dropped the bags down on their kingsized bed. "Damn." the convict said as she looked around. "This place is nice."

"I certainly hope so. It wasn't cheap." Miranda commented as she stepped out on to the balcony. "But you can't deny that view." The city of Nos Astra was breathtakingly beautiful. The city lights shining in various bright colors against the night sky as skycars soared off in the distance and far below their balcony.

Jack roped her strong arms around Miranda from behind. "Too early to break in the bed?" she asked as she nipped at her neck and squeezed Lawson's breasts.

Miranda smirked and spun around to meet the convict's lips. "It's never too early." she said after they came apart.

Jack grinned and lead her by the hand back to the bed. She flipped back around to kiss her again but instead a jolt of pain shot down her neck and Jack winced. "Fucking transport seats." she groaned.

Lawson quickly stripped her lover. "get on the bed. And lay on your stomach."

"Why?"

"Just do it, Jack."

The convict stepped out of her panties and did as ordered. Miranda unzipped her catsuit and tossed her panties and bra aside as she straddled her fiancee on the bed and wasted no time digging her thumbs into Jack's sore neck rewarding her with a moan of pleasure.

"Fuck, that feel amazing." Jack's voice was muffled by the pillow her face was buried in.

Miranda smiled and leaned forward pressing her breasts against her lover's tattooed back and planting a kiss on her slender neck. She continued to work her hands on Jack's tense muscles for several minutes before Jack rolled over on her back. "Better?"

Jack nodded but her eyes didn't carry the same light they had earlier. "Can I ask you something, Cheerleader?"

"Anything."

"You killed your father right?"

Miranda traced the convict's tattoos with her fingers. "I did."

"Did it change anything? Did it...fuck I don't know, give you closure?"

"Yes. And I'd do it again. My father made my life a living hell, he was completely egomaniacal and he engineered my sister as my replacement when I was only sixteen. He practically forced me to turn to Cerberus and all that was before he was helping the Illusive Man massacre thousands of innocent colonists on Horizon. He got off easy." Jack grew silent. "Why?"

"I've just been thinking."

Miranda's eyes softened and she ran her finger's through Jack's hair. "Okay. Talk to me."

"If killing your dad ended that crap for you. Then why didn't it work for me when I fucked up that Cardo bastard?"

"I don't know, Jack. But we'll find some way to put it to rest." Lawson promised.

Jack shut her eyes and shook her head. "Time moves forward but shit's never over until you stop breathing. If killing that asshole didn't put it to rest talking about it sure as hell isn't either."

Miranda leaned down and planted kisses on Jack's body as she moved down to her chest before wrapping her lips around one of the convict's nipples and teasing it into a stiff point. "Does that help?" She said in a seductive growl when she released the nipple of her lover's comparatively small breasts just before returning for a quick kiss.

Her lover chuckled. "It sure as hell isn't hurting."

Lawson smiled and continued sucking on the hard tip, giving a light playful bite before she released her breast with a wet pop and crawled further down the bed. She kissed the surprisingly tattoo-free flesh of Jack's inner thighs and parted her legs and reached out to spread her glistening folds. "Mmm, how about this?" Miranda purred.

The convict bit her lower lip and nodded her head. "Fuck yeah."

Miranda brought her lips back to her thighs and kissed upwards, the scent of Jack's arousal filling her nose. Lawson penetrated her lover with her tongue resulting in a sharp cry of pleasure from Jack as the sweet taste filled Miranda's mouth. She slowly licked upwards before she captured the swollen bud of Jack's clit in her mouth and moaned sending vibrations to the stimulated head as she thrust two fingers into Jack's opening. She summoned a small amount of biotic energy to the digits she had buried inside her lover, vibrating her fingers and making Jack's hips jerk upwards. "Oh fuck!" the convict's voice rose a few octaves as she reached up to tweak her unattended nipples as the raven haired woman kept eating her out for several minutes. "You're gonna make me come, Miranda!"

Lawson laughed and looked up after licking her wet lips. "That's the idea." she increased the vibrations on her fingers and pumped them in and out of her tattooed lover with even more intensity and before long Jack's inner muscles clamped down around Miranda's fingers and the convict let out a loud cry of passion as she came. Miranda smiled as she removed her fingers from Jack's pussy and sucked them clean. "Feel better?"

Jack's chest heaved. "Uh, yeah."

Lawson licked her lips clean and rose to her feet. "Good, because i'm taking a shower before we meet Oriana tonight. And you're going to join me."

* * *

Jack and Miranda climbed the stairs inside Oriana's apartment building on their way to her flat. Miranda should have been nervous about her sister finally meeting Jack but her mind was still stuck on what the convict had said in their hotel room. She couldn't just go down on Jack every time she brought up Pragia but she hated hearing the way the woman she loved sounded so scared and lonely every time she spoke of the Teltin facility and her childhood. Lawson would have to come up with a more permanent solution to her fiancee's pain than her tongue. Then she noticed the look on Jack's face.

"Are you nervous, Jack?" Miranda chuckled.

"Is it so fucked up that I want her to like me?"

Lawson smiled. "It's sweet. I suppose i'm nervous myself, I'm not sure how I should tell her."

Jack stopped in her tracks. "What?!"

Miranda turned around. "Something wrong?"

"Your sister doesn't know we're getting married?"

"Well no."

"What exactly have you told her about me, cheerleader?"

"She knows you're my girlfriend and that your name's Jack."

The convict narrowed her eyes. "You two talk on the comm every week! What the hell are you talking about then?"

Miranda shrugged. "Usually her. But I tell her about us sometimes, however most of what we do isn't exactly something I can tell my baby sister about."

The convict laughed. "Oh this won't be awkward at all."

"You'll be fine, Jack."

"What's she like?"

Miranda thought about it. "She's very mature."

* * *

Oriana Lawson slid across her floor as the music blared throughout her apartment. Her hair was let out and cascaded down past her shoulders and she wore nothing but a T-shirt, polka dot covered panties and a pair of hot pink socks as she danced throughout her otherwise unoccupied apartment to the Expel 10 song she had on repeat. She swayed her hips to the beat as she sang along loudly and out of key nearly tripping over the stacks of school work she had littered across her floors.

"I don't wanna have to walk away!" She bellowed along with the song followed by an enthusiastic air guitar before flopping down on the couch and furiously kicking her feet in the air. "From our loooove!" She finished the song and hopped off the couch and started towards her sound system before she heard a knock on the door right before the beat started blasting again through her speakers. Oriana narrowed her eyes and padded over to the door and opened the hall cam to see who was visiting.

Her sister stood in the hall, she knocked again. "Ori?! Are you home? What the hell is going on in there?"

"Oh crap!" Oriana cried. She opened the comm. "Um...give me a minute."

"Alright." He sister replied.

"Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap crap crap!" Oriana kept saying as she quickly turned off her music and scrambled to clean up the mess of papers and other school work scattered all across her flat. She couldn't believe she had lost track of the time; her apartment was a mess. She scurried upstairs and quickly found a pair of jeans which she hurriedly pulled over her legs and then ran back down to the front door and opened it up before pouncing on to her sister and wrapping her arms around Miranda in a tight hug. "Miri!" she cried.

Miranda chuckled. "Good to see you, Ori." she said as she returned the hug. When they separated Miranda shot a confused look at her sister. "Why are you so out of breath?"

"Uh..." Suddenly Oriana's eyes found Jack a few feet behind Miranda leaning up against the hallways walls. "Who's your friend, sis?"

Jack pushed off the wall and shot an awkward glance to Miranda. "Ori, I'd like you to meet Jack."

Oriana's face lit up. "Oh my gosh! You're Jack?!"

Jack offered her hand. "Hey."

Ori pulled her in to a tight hug that the convict was completely unprepared for. "I'm so happy to finally meet you."

"Uh yeah the same I guess." Jack huffed out as Oriana held her a little too tightly.

She mercifully released Jack."After all the stories I finally get to meet my big sister's girlfriend. Oh! Come inside." she took hold of Jack's hand and lead her into her apartment.

"Nice place you got here." Jack said as she looked around at Oriana's surprisingly large and well furnished home.

Miranda's sister giggled. "Thanks. Oh let me take your coat!" she rushed to help Jack out of her studded leather Jacket and promptly threw it into the crumpled pile of clothes she kept beside her front door. "You have tattoos! That's so awesome." she said when she got a good look at Jack without her jacket.

Jack inspected the girl's appearance. She and Miranda looked remarkably alike but Oriana had a youthful innocence about her and a seemingly permeant smile on her face which her lover certainly lacked. However the biotic was struggling to think of things to discuss with the young girl. "You got any beer?" she asked.

"Yep." Ori answered and ran into the kitchen to retrieve three bottles. "Catch!" she cried out and threw Jack her beer from the across the apartment. The throw wasn't nearly far enough but Jack saved the bottle before it shattered on the ground with her biotics and pulled it into her hand. "Nice save." Ori said as she walked back into the living room and handed Miranda her beer.

"What's with all this rubbish lying around? And what the hell is Won-Ton?" Miranda read off the poster stretched out across her sisters coffee table.

"Oh that's my band."

"You have a band?" Miranda asked.

Oriana blushed. "Yeah."

Lawson smiled. "Why didn't you tell me that?"

"You always wanna talk about school." Oriana said.

"How are your studies going?"

Oriana chuckled. "As if you don't already know!"

"I stopped monitoring them as closely."

"They're good. Really good." Oriana boasted.

"Perfect." Miranda said and sat down next to Jack on the couch.

Suddenly a burning smell filled the apartment. "Oh no!" Oriana cried and scurried into the kitchen.

Jack chuckled. "Jesus, Miranda. She looks exactly like you if you were all bubbly and giddy."

"I made sure she had a real childhood." Miranda reminded her. "What did you expect?"

"Honestly? A grumpier you."

"I am not grumpy!" Miranda cried.

"Sure you're not, babe."

"What's that about how grumpy Miranda is?" Oriana said as she returned with a slightly burned veggie pizza and offered a slice to Jack who accepted it and her empty stomach didn't mind the burned crust as she dug in. "So tell me about yourself, Jack."

"I work with your sister and we..." Jack noticed the look in Miranda's eyes when she sensed the curse word she was about to drop. "Um, are in love." she finished the sentence making Miranda smile.

"Well yeah I know all that. But where are you from?"

Jack shrugged. "Eden Prime I guess."

"You guess? What about your parents?"

"Dead." Jack answered.

"Oh I'm so sorry." There was an awkward silence before Oriana tried to lighten the mood. "You know you're not what I expected, Jack."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah you know I always thought Miri's girlfriend would have to share her love of catsuits." she teased and Jack laughed.

"They're bloody comfortable!" Miranda cried, tired of having to justify her wardrobe but it only made Ori and Jack laugh more.

"So what brings you two to my neck of the galaxy?" Oriana asked as she took a bite of pizza.

"I actually have something I need to tell you." Miranda said.

"Sounds exciting."

"Jack and I are getting married."

"Holy crap! No way!" Oriana cried with a mouth full of pizza.

Jack flashed her engagement ring and Oriana pulled them both into another hug. "You guys, that's amazing!"

"Yeah." Jack agreed.

"We're not going to have a large ceremony or anything. But It would mean a lot if you'd be my maid of honor." Miranda said.

"Are you kidding? Of course!" Oriana exclaimed. "I can't believe my big sis is getting hitched."

"It was a surprise to me as well." Miranda said before she began to look around at the school papers scattered around and picked one up. "Theoretical physics?" she guessed after reading a the first few lines.

Ori groaned. "Ugh, it's so boring."

"This is impressive work, Ori."

Jack took a look. "Yeah, I don't have a fucking clue what any of it says."

"Hey you know the university is always looking for speakers." Oriana said.

"Are they?" Miranda set the paper down.

"Yeah. We had to suffer through some old bald guy with a robotic arm yesterday talking about humanity's biotic potential. But I bet my big sister could blow him away. Plus I'll get extra-credit."

Miranda thought about it. "Alright."

"Awesome! Hey you should come to too, Jack!"

Jack shrugged. "Why not?"

* * *

**Notes- Okay so a bit of a set up chapter but still hopefully enjoyable. I want to thank all the awesome people who reviewed this story already! So Miranda and Jack are both heading to Oriana's university next chapter and things will start to heat up. Tell me what you thought of this chapter in the reviews! **


	3. Survival

**The Year 2176**

**Pragia**

Her vision started to darken and her head felt light as the water surrounded her. The water in the bucket ran red with her blood and it's icy cold temperature assaulted her pale flesh, but she couldn't hardly feel much of anything but her burning lungs as they yearned for air. She struggled against her bonds and arched her back to push her chest out; a desperate attempt to tell her tormentors she'd had enough. Finally they tipped her chair forward and she gasped for air as her head was pulled from the bucket. Water and blood ran down her bare torso

Even though her voice was hoarse, even though she barley had enough energy to keep her eyes open, Jack still screamed as they injected her. She didn't have a clue what was inside the syringes, all she knew was it burned like hell as it pumped through her veins. The skinny fifteen year old girl struggled against the steel bonds that confined her to the metal lab chair she'd been strapped to for so many hours she was not even sure what day it was anymore. Hell, she lost track of the days long ago.

"Again." Doctor Cardo said as he extracted more of that liquid shit from a bottle with a long needle. Jack can only scream and bare her teeth like a cornered animal, spiting at the men and growling while tears and snot streamed down her face. She looked at Cardo, his dark hair was thinning and his skin was disgustingly pale. He looked like he had never seen the outside of a laboratory and his brown eyes had a way of making her skin crawl when they met her own. Jack didn't know the world outside of this facility. For all she knew this was all there was. A dark sterile hell where she's tortured, experimented on and raped until she finally built up the courage to kill herself and see what comes next. Personally Jack hoped for nothing. Death seemed like the only thing to the young girl that set things right.

One of the younger looking doctors had an expression of concern on his face. "Doctor Cardo, we've given her seventeen injections already in just this one session."

Cardo flicked the end of the needle once he finished extracting what he needed. "And the readings are still not where we want them. So we will give the subject as many injections as it takes."

"Sir, she's just a child. She can't be expected to survive if we keep it up like this. None of the other subjects were able to survive past stage five."

Rage flashed in Cardo's eyes. "She is not a child, she is an experiment. And it is our job to make sure that experiment is successful."

"It doesn't matter. Zero will die if you continue this."

"We shall see." Cardo sunk the needle into Jack's arm and the girl screamed in agony as he plunged the injection inside her.

Jack lurched forward as the burning sensation filled her entire body. Cardo casually fetched the steel table with a set of empty beakers resting on top and wheeled it in front of Jack. "You know the drill, Zero."

The girl looked up, drool coming from the corners of her mouth, eyes bloodshot and her chest heaving as she gasped for air but she did nothing but stare at them. "I told you it would be too much!" The young doctor cried.

Cardo shook his head. "It appears it wasn't enough." he said before retrieving the bottle and his needle again.

"Wait!" Jack screamed.

Both the doctors jumped back in surprise. "The Beakers." Cardo said as he pointed a stiff finger towards the spare equipment. "Move them and we can be done for the day."

A weak blue field of energy manifested itself around the girl's body. The glass lab equipment was encompassed by the energy and it was slowly lifted from the steel table. Doctor Cardo smiled. "Excellent."

Suddenly the equipment was flung from the table with breathtaking force and the set of beakers shattered when it struck Cardo and burrowed shards of broken glass in his face. "Fuck you!" Jack screamed with rejuvenated strength. "I'm gonna fucking kill every last one of you mother fuckers!" The young girl growled as she pulled at her restraints.

Cardo clutched up at his bleeding face and wiped the blood from his eyes. "You little bitch!" He clenched his fists and delivered punch after punch to the girl's face until Jack no longer cried out but instead lied limp in the chair hoping that it would end Cardo's retaliation but instead the doctor flipped her chair backwards and plunged her head back into the icy cold water.

Jack screamed, air bubbles flooding from her bloodied nose and mouth as she thrashed and spasmed in her steel chair. Finally she gave in and stopped resisting. She just wanted this to be over. But much to her disappointment Cardo pulled her from the waters just before she lost consciousness. She coughed up water and gasped for air as Cardo unfastened her from her chair. Jack sprang out from her chair and summoned her biotics but Cardo wasted no time sending a jolt of electricity to the collar Jack had worn for as long as she could remember.

The young girl collapsed to the ground and spasmed as the electricity coursed through her. Once the jolt left her she found herself too weak to fight back anymore as Cardo started dragging her along the ground and before long he threw her into her cell. "How many times must we go over this, Zero?"

"F-Fuck...you." Jack mumbled.

"There is nowhere to run. And there is nobody coming to save you because there isn't a soul in this galaxy that gives a shit about you. And there never will be. You were created for the benefit of all humanity and the sooner you wrap your pathetic mind around the reality of the situation you are in and the complete futility of these escape attempts. The sooner you can fulfill your purpose." Cardo screamed at the girl who had curled up into a soaking wet ball in the middle of the cold steel floor. The Doctor put pressure on his bleeding face wounds and left the girl's room.

Jack crawled up on to her hard bed and looked down at the children below her on the other side of her window. They never look up at her or even acknowledge her but she still uses what little strength she has left to pound her fist's bloody against the glass and scream out. Desperate to be heard by them, to be heard by anyone.

* * *

**Illium 2188**

Rain splashed down hard on the asari planet as Miranda and Jack sprinted from the large skycar park and into the densely crowded halls of Nos Astra University. Jack removed her leather jacket which she had draped over Miranda's head to protect her hair from the rain and shrugged it on over her shoulders. Lawson smiled and moved to kiss her lover before she noticed all the students eyeing them. "Thank you." she settled on instead.

Jack looked around uneasily. "How long is this gonna take, Cheerleader?"

"I'm not sure." She answered before noticing the look on Jack's face. "Are you alright? Being here I mean."

"I'm fine." Jack insisted but her expression betrayed her words.

"It's just...with Grissom Academy I-"

"I'm fine." The convict repeated and cut off her lover.

Lawson dipped her head. "If you say so." It was hardly the time to discuss such a matter but Miranda scolded herself for being so absent minded as to take Jack to a school. "Come on. We have to meet Ori."

"Lead the way, babe."

Miranda turned and began to follow her sister's directions she had given her over the comm earlier in the day and as they maneuvered through the students who walked the halls. Eventually they found Oriana taping up a poster for her band. She turned and caught a glance at her big sister and her face lit up. "You made it!" Oriana cried as she sprinted towards Jack and Miranda.

"I said I would didn't I?" Miranda said with a smile.

"You're the best, sis!" Oriana smiled from ear to ear. "You go on pretty soon. So why don't I show you to the lecture hall."

"Okay." Miranda said and wrapped an arm around Jack who had grown worryingly silent.

"So when are you two lovebirds tying the knot?" Oriana asked before giving a playful punch to Miranda's shoulder. "You never did tell me the other day."

"When we're ready. Perhaps in a few months." Miranda answered.

"It's going to be so beautiful, I just know it!"

They walked together down the halls towards the the lecture hall before Oriana stopped in her tracks. "Oh my gosh!"

"What's wrong?"

"That's Chris Wagner!" Ori cried pointing in the direction of a fit young boy with blonde hair.

"Who?" Jack piped in finally breaking her silent streak.

"The hottest guy in class!"

Jack narrowed her eyes as she glared at the boy coming towards them. "Him?" Miranda and Jack said at the same time.

"Miri, don't say anything embarrassing!"

"Why would I?"

"Just don't talk about your genes or father or Cerberus!" Ori gushed and then she tried to act casual as Chris came to a stop in front of her.

"Ori, what's up?" He said.

"Nothing. Or um just you know...school...stuff. Why what's up with you?" Miranda and Jack both rolled their eyes.

Chris set his eyes on the couple and tried his best to put on a smooth face. "Who are your friends?"

"Oh! Um, this is my big sister Miranda and her Fiancee Jack."

Miranda extended her hand. "A pleasure to meet one of Oriana's friends."

"Fiancee?" Chris said with a grin as he shook Miranda's hand and glanced at Jack who glared at him with her arms crossed. "That's hot." he simply added.

Jack narrowed her eyes and didn't take his hand when he offered it for a handshake. "So um Chris, are you coming to my show?" Oriana asked meekly.

"Maybe." Chris answered with a smile.

"It's no big deal. It's just gonna be me and my band so whatever." Oriana blushed and dipped her head.

The boy looked Miranda up and down. "Are you gonna be there?" He asked.

"Perhaps." Lawson answered.

"Then I'll be there." Chris said with a wink. "See ya around, Ori." and with that he sauntered away.

Oriana grinned. "He's so cute."

"Yeah a real Romeo." Jack grunted.

"You're a Shakespeare fan, Jack?! I love the Bard! Okay this way!" Oriana said and hurried down the hall back to their destination.

Jack looked to Miranda. "Who the fuck is Shakespeare?"

"He's a... it doesn't matter. Let's go." Miranda said and they followed after Oriana until they arrived at the currently empty lecture hall.

"Alright Sis, knock 'em dead!" Oriana said with a smile.

Miranda flashed a wry nervous smile. "I'll certainly try."

Jack hooked her finger under Lawson's chin and pecked her on the lips. "You're gonna kick ass, babe."

"Class doesn't start for a few more minutes but I figured you'd want some time to prepare. I really appreciate this, Miranda! My professor is giving me a crap-ton of extra-credit for bringing you in."

"It's my pleasure. Will you be alright, Jack?"

"Don't worry about me."

"Come on, Jack!" Ori cried and took hold of the convict's hand before dragging her down the hall. Jack looked over her shoulder and Miranda flashed her a smile before stepping inside the lecture hall.

Miranda admired the large room. It was a reminder of her own childhood that should would have preferred not to have. Ever since she and Jack had first kissed Lawson liked to not think on the past too much. She climbed the small stair case up on to the stage and started going through her lecture in her head. She knew all there was to know about cellular regeneration off the top of her head but she'd never done something like this. Miranda chuckled, she'd gone through the Omega 4 Relay and fought Reapers firsthand and yet here she was scared stiff with stage fright.

The doors to the lecture hall opened and two men who looked to be in their 50s stepped inside. "Ah, Miss Lawson. I hadn't heard you'd arrived yet." one said.

Miranda stepped down off the stage to greet them. "Just did actually."

The professor offered his hand. "Professor Malcom. May I say it is an honor to meet you."

Lawson always hated the Normandy gratitude but she decided to play nice with her sister's professor. "Thank you." She offered her hand to the other professor. "And you are?"

The bald man offered his hand. The sound of a mechanical whirring made her look down and she was surprised to find that the bald professor's arm was a fake robotic prosthetic. She gripped the cold steel hand and shook it. "Doctor Nicholas Moser." he introduced himself. Miranda inspected his face, it was full of wrinkles but what struck her most was a series of facial scars along the side of his face.

"And what do you teach?" Miranda asked.

"Genetic Engineering." He told her in a soft voice.

"Doctor Moser is our most accomplished Professor at the University. "Malcom said.

Moser smirked. "Hardly."

"Don't be modest Doctor, your work in the field of Human Biotics is legendary."

"Biotics?" Miranda questioned.

"Indeed." Moser nodded his head. "It's an ever evolving subject. It hasn't even been a century since the first human biotics and look at how far we've come. I predict within the next decade we will finally unlock humanity's potential and be able to bestow the gift of biotics to any human who wishes to wield them. It's why i've dedicated my life to studying them. Humanity still has a lot of catching up to do with the other races of the galaxy. I believe biotics are the key to forever leveling the playing field."

Suddenly Malcom's omni-tool buzzed. "Oh! Excuse me I need to take this." he said and scurried off back into the hall.

Miranda turned back to Moser. "How exactly do you propose we go about bestowing biotics to any human?" she asked.

"Simple. You can easily manipulate a subject's genetics with element zero so long as you start early enough. Children are the key."

"I see."

"Do you doubt the potential?"

Miranda shook her head. "No. Just the practice."

Moser was taken aback and glared at the tall woman. "What would you know about it?"

"I engineered Commander Shepard's biotics. No children were involved. Perhaps you should sit in on my lecture, Doctor."

The doctor crossed his arms and tapped a robotic finger on his forearm. "Perhaps I will."

"Forgive my curiosity. But may I ask how you lost your arm?"

Moser smiled. "Failed experiment."

"Is that so. Well it was wonderful speaking with you, Doctor. I'm afraid I must prepare for my lecture now. Feel free to join the audience."

"I believe I will Miss Lawson."

* * *

Jack and Oriana made their way up the stairs of the lecture hall to a pair of open seats near the back of the room. The hall was packed with students and professors. Everyone had heard that the woman who brought Commander Shepard back to life was giving a lecture and seemingly nobody wished to miss the opportunity to see Miranda speak.

"So Jack, how did you tame my big sister's heart?" Oriana asked.

"I used my tongue." Jack chuckled.

Oriana giggled. "I mean seriously. You're awesome but not exactly who I pictured Miranda marrying."

"I don't know. It just sort of happened. We didn't have some fucking plan, well maybe she did. But I guess we just realized we belong with each other and all that sappy bullshit."

"So what's it like?"

"What?"

"You know living with her. Sometimes I still feel like I hardly know Miri."

"It's good."

Ori groaned. "You're a poet, Jack." The convict stayed silent and Oriana softened her voice when she spoke next. "Are you alright?"

"I don't like schools."

"Oh, why? What happened when you went to school?"

"Never did." Jack answered. "I was a teacher for a bit."

"No way! That's awesome. Why'd you stop?"

Jack crossed her arms. "It just didn't work out."

They watched as Miranda took the stage and opened up the hologram display to her left. "Good afternoon. I'm Miranda Lawson and I'm here today to discuss cellular regeneration and engineering."

Jack watched as her lover gave a long winded presentation in which she was certain Miranda was speaking another language. Finally even admiring Lawson's beauty bored Jack so she searched the crowd for entertainment as they listened intently to the woman she loved while she spoke on stage. She found nothing of interest initially until her eyes caught a robotic arm on the armrest of a seat a few rows below her. The owner of the prosthetic was facing away from her but the unusual sight still caught the biotic's attention. She wanted to see if this guy's face was as fucked up as his arm.

Jack looked to her feet and saw a piece of discarded paper and picked it up before balling it up and with the help of her biotics tossed it at the man and struck him square in the back of his bald head. Jack chuckled mischievously as the man flinched but her smile vanished instantly when the doctor turned around. Everything around Jack seemed to disappear and Miranda's lecture was even pushed from her mind as the convict's eyes were locked on the face she hadn't seen since she was sixteen outside of her nightmares.

Tears brimmed in her eyes and she clenched her fists as her biotics started to flare around her. Her chest heaved as she drew in short breaths. "Jack? What's wrong?" Oriana asked.

Jack gritted her teeth and didn't respond. "Um... let's get some air." Ori offered and took Jack by the arm and lead her out of the lecture hall.

Miranda took notice. "Excuse me." the raven haired woman said and jumped off the stage to follow them out.

Once they were out Jack screamed and punched the wall with such force she left a hole and her rage was so great she didn't even feel the pain. "Ori give us a minute!" Miranda cried.

"What's wrong?"

"Ori!" Miranda shouted.

"Right!" Ori ducked back into the lecture hall as Miranda escorted Jack into a nearby empty classroom.

"What happened?" Miranda asked with a hint of fear. She had never seen Jack this upset. Jack threw all the desks inside the classroom against the back wall with a strong biotic pulse and cried out again seemingly unaware Miranda was in the room with her.

"He's fucking alive!?" Jack screamed.

"Who is?"

"He's fucking alive!" Jack repeated even louder as she shattered a window with a chair.

"Jack!" Miranda screamed but her lover still didn't reply as she continued to destroy the classroom. Miranda took hold of her head in her hands and forced Jack to look at her.

The convict's mascara ran down her cheeks and her eyes softened with tears that Miranda started to carry in her own eyes. "Jack, what's wrong?"

"It's him, Miranda!"

"Him? Who are you talking about?"

"That fucker with the fake arm!"

"What about him? Who is he?"

Jack shut her eyes. "Cardo."

* * *

**Notes- I'm back! Sorry for taking my longest writing break but i'm afraid I was out of town for a bit. Regular and frequent updates will be coming for this story now I promise. **

**So Jack finally learned that Cardo isn't dead and we can now start to get in to the Revenge portion of our story. I'd love to read your predictions of what you think Jack and Miranda are gonna do in the reviews. **

**Oh and in case you haven't already seen it. I did a list of actors and actresses who I would use as the face models for all my original characters. Go check it out on my profile if you want to see what Matriarch Aquilla, Ereyla, Marion Corvus, Sarah and more are supposed to look like! **


	4. The Hunt Begins

**Sydney Australia **

**The Year 2166**

Miranda Lawson sat outside of her home with her head hung low. Ever since she visited her father in his lab Miranda hadn't even seen Henry Lawson. He had spent all his time locked away working on...whatever it was he was working on. She was so ashamed of herself for being so stupid. How could she have ever thought her pathetic grades would have impressed him. But the incident had rendered the young girl understandably depressed.

When she was little her father used to be so impressed with her. It seemed she never failed to make him proud in her younger days. But ever since she hit puberty her father had been distant. Even more so in the past few weeks. Sometimes it felt like she didn't exist. Nobody at school paid her any mind, she was far too young to call any of them friends. In fact some of them had been rather cruel to the young girl, Miranda knew it was because the college students didn't appreciate the fact that a sixteen year old girl got much higher marks than them. Even still, some of the things they said hurt. She had been forced to adapt a stoic attitude which had left her cold and uncaring to those around her. Now she was known as "That little bitch" or "The Ice Princess" behind her back. At least it meant they left her alone. She didn't even see Niket anymore, the boy's family had recently moved off world taking her only friend with them.

Now Miranda sat alone on the grass outside of her large home in the heart of Sydney Australia. It was a beautiful day, birds were singing and there was a comforting breeze in the air. Miranda didn't take notice of any of it. She brushed her shoulder length hair away from her face and picked up her knapsack from around her ankles and shrugged it on over her shoulders. She scanned into the front door and walked inside, only this time she didn't expect to see her father waiting for her. Not like he used to. She wished she knew what she did to make him stop loving her.

She climbed the stairs on her way to her spacious room. She figured she may as well spend her night doing school work like always. Perhaps she'd play her violin to get her mind off things for a while. Lawson perked up when she heard the sound of someone inside her bedroom on the other side of the door at the end of the hall. Her mind went racing as she ran towards it. Had her father changed his attitude? Had he forgiven her? Was he giving her the birthday present she didn't receive from him two weeks back and waiting to surprise his daughter in her room? She opened the door and stepped inside of her room with a foolish smile on her lips.

"Father!" She cried, delighted to see him after creating various fantasies in her head about his visit to her room that were about to be destroyed. She noticed a set of bags was set out on her bed and that her father was jamming her clothes into them.

"You're home." He said without facing her and continued stuffing the bags.

"Are...are we going on a trip?" she asked before looking to the waste basket and seeing that her violin had been broken in half so it could be forced inside the trash bin.

"We're not." He finished packing the last of her clothes and zipped up the bag. "You are."

Miranda padded over to the trash and fished out what remained of her beloved instrument. "W-Why did you throw away my Violin?"

"You won't be needing it anymore."

Tears began to sting in her eyes. "Where am I going?"

"A boarding school in Earth orbit."

"You're...sending me away?"

Henry reached down and tossed a datapad to her which she caught. "You're meeting the school's representatives at the airport tomorrow. Bring that with you. Even you can't mess that up."

"Father, I don't understand. Why do you want me to go?"

"It's over, Miranda."

Miranda's lower lip quivered and tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Over?"

"I tried my best but you're nothing but a failure. I created you to carry on my legacy and I'm afraid you're not up to the task. So you're being sent away while I work on your successor. Hopefully your sister will not make the same mistakes as you."

"I can do better! I promise!" Miranda cried.

"That's just it. You can't. I blame myself really. But you can't expect every experiment to be successful, Miranda."

"But...when will I come home? What about my studies here?"

"You will stay here as always when this is done. Disappointment as you might be I'm unfortunately stuck with you. But I need you out of my hair while I work on Oriana."

"Why? Why are you doing this to me?" Miranda whimpered.

"You're a failure, Miranda. I created you to be perfect and you don't even come close. By the time you return I'll have figured out what to do with you."

Miranda began to sob uncontrollably. "Please. Please don't make me go!" hard as it was, this life was all Miranda knew. The thought of everything being taken away was unthinkable; that she had failed her father, that she was going to be replaced and ignored in favor of a new girl. Despite how difficult he was Henry Lawson was still her father. She thought that counted for something. But it was the first of many hard lessons Miranda would have to learn.

"Pack up anything else you wish to take with you. Goodbye, Miranda." He said without emotion as he went to move past her Miranda grabbed his arm.

Suddenly she was enraged. "You can't do this! You can't just throw me away and replace me!"

"It's already done." Henry replied.

Miranda summoned her biotics. "No!" she screamed, her biotics flaring with her anger. "I've spent my whole life trying to make you proud. I won't allow you to just toss me aside like I'm nothing!"

Henry smirked, as if something about this situation was amusing to him. "What are you going to do?" Miranda grew silent and Henry shook his head. "Still such a child." he added before turning the other way and closing his daughter's bedroom door behind him as he left her alone.

Miranda turned back to her broken Violin and pulled the rest of the splintered instrument out of the bin. The twisted mess of strings and the shattered bow where enough to push her over the edge. Miranda used her biotics to toss what remained of the violin against the wall and shattered it. She clenched her fists in anger. Her father thought she was just going to be shipped off to some school and be forgotten like an animal. He was sorely mistaken.

* * *

**Illium 2188**

Oriana nervously paced in the corner of the lecture hall. She had an entire room filled with her peers who were all wondering what the hell had happened just like her. She'd have to do something or the halls would soon be flooded with the exiting students who could very well run in to her big sister's fiancee who seemed to be having some sort of psychological meltdown.

She had to admit, she never expected Miranda's lover to be so interesting. But she couldn't dwell on that, she had to delay her classmates for as long as she could so Miranda could deal with the tattooed biotic.

Ori scrambled up on stage. "Um, I'm afraid the lecture has been cancelled!" Oriana shouted from where she stood in front of a packed lecture hall. The students all stared with confusion at the young woman. "But you can all come see my band Won-Ton play this weekend at Shepard's Pint!" she offered trying to steer people minds away from the unusual conclusion to her big sister's lecture.

Doctor Cardo chuckled. He knew that tart was all talk, the ridiculous woman probably ran off when she realized she was talking out of her ass. He couldn't believe she had the audacity to openly defy his theory to his face. As if some woman who hardly looked like she'd ever seen the inside of a proper laboratory could have discovered something he'd missed on Pragia, or in his work since the Teltin facility. He knew people believed she was responsible for bringing Commander Shepard back but he always doubted it, meeting her first hand only fed in to those doubts. He got up to leave with everyone else but then the student on stage cried out again giving everyone pause.

"Wait!" Oriana shouted. Everyone stared at her and the younger Lawson cleared her throat nervously. She had to keep them in here a little longer and she racked her brain thinking of how before an idea came to her. "So who here likes magic?"

* * *

"Fuck!" Jack screamed and Miranda wrapped her arms around the convict in a tight hug.

"I'm sure you just made a mistake." Miranda assured her.

"It wasn't a fucking mistake! Cardo is alive! And he's in the next room right now!" Jack pushed away from the embrace and wiped the tears from her eyes before she marched for the door.

Miranda jumped in front of her. 'What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna go finish what I started and put that asshole down for good this time."

"Jack, you can't!"

"The hell I can't, Miranda! You have any fucking idea what he did to me?! Do you?!" Jack screamed. Miranda had never heard her so angry.

"Yes." Miranda answered. "I do. But you can't walk in there and kill a man in front of my little sister and her class. They'd lock you up for good, and this time Shepard and I won't be able to break you out."

"He can't just get away with it! I won't let him." She tried to shove past Miranda but the taller woman grabbed her again. "Let go of me! Who's fucking side are you on, Cheerleader?"

"I'm always going to be on your side, Jack. And i'm saving you from yourself."

Jack tried to wiggled free from Miranda's grasp. "Fuck, how can you even stand in my way after what you did to your father?"

"Because I love you! And I won't allow you to destroy your life for this. Our life."

The tattooed woman pulled even harder. "I don't want to hurt you, Miranda. Let go of me!"

"You're not going to hurt me." Miranda said. Jack knew it was true just as much as Lawson did so she stopped resisting.

"I can't just let it go. I...I just can't."

Miranda released her lover. "I know you can't."

"Then...what do we do?" Jack asked a bit calmer.

Lawson was silent while she thought about it. "We'll follow him. Find out all we can. And make sure this is him. We have to be certain."

"It's him." Jack promised.

"We'll see. And if it is. We'll figure out our next move from there." Miranda took Jack in her arms again and ran her fingers through her lover's brown hair. "I promised you I'd get you closure on this didn't I? I always keep my promises."

Jack leaned in to the embrace. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... you know."

"I know." Miranda said. "Now, stay here and try to calm down. I'm going to check on Ori."

Jack just nodded and Miranda exited the destroyed classroom. She'd have to pay for the damages Jack had caused in addition to donating another sizable amount to make sure Oriana didn't suffer from her lover's temper. She didn't care, it was only money and she had plenty of that. What worried her most was this entire situation. In an instant it was like all the progress Jack had made in the two years they'd been together had vanished. She was more like the frightened and enraged convict she had met on the blue sun's prison ship all those years ago. That terrified Miranda. She wouldn't let this man hurt Jack again, she promised herself that. One way or the other when they finally left Illium Miranda would make sure whatever remained of Subject Zero died on the asari world.

Outside of the classroom she was met with a crowd of students as they flooded out of the lecture hall. She gave out a few half hearted apologies for ending the lecture prematurely to them as they moved past her. Her eyes found Oriana on the stage. She got her sister's attention with a motion of her hand and waved her over. Ori jumped down and ran to meet her big sister with concern carried on her face. "Is everything okay? Is Jack alright?" she asked once Miranda had lead them away from the crowd.

"Yes. Unfortunately Jack has trouble in crowds sometimes." She lied. How could she possibly be expected to explain the situation to Oriana?

"Oh! Thank goodness. I thought something terrible had happened. But she'll be alright?"

Her sister really was a sweet girl. Lawson had made many hard choices in her life but one decision Miranda never regretted was taking her sister from their father. "She'll be okay. But I'm going to take her back to our hotel."

"Of course."

"I'm really sorry, Ori."

Oriana hugged her. "Don't be. Now go. We can see each other again soon."

Miranda wrapped her arms around her and smiled. "I love you." she didn't tell her sister that enough.

"Love you too, sis."With that Oriana exited the lecture hall. Miranda let out a sigh and buried her face in her hands.

"It was an interesting lecture, Miss Lawson." a voice said from behind her.

Miranda spun around to find Doctor Cardo grinning. "My apologies. Something urgent came up."

"What a shame. Well perhaps another time?"

"I hope so."

Cardo offered his robotic hand and a disingenuous smile. "I do hope our paths cross again soon."

Miranda firmly shook his cold metal prosthetic. "Careful what you wish for." She said and forced a chuckle. Once Cardo turned his back and moved to leave the room Miranda went to work on her omni-tool. It only took a moment for her to place a tracer on Cardo's device. A trick she had learned long ago and had utilized to great effect before on Horizon with the late Kai Leng.

She hurried out of the lecture hall and back into the ruined classroom to find Jack hunched over in one of the desks that was lucky enough to have not been destroyed in Jack's rage. The convict had her face buried on the desk top and she looked up when she heard the familiar sound of Miranda's boots clicking on the floor. "What's up? Did you see that piece of shit?"

Miranda nodded. "I did. If your up for it now why don't we see where the good doctor calls home."

Jack jumped to her feet. "Oh I can do now."

"Then follow me."

* * *

Miranda and Jack sat in front seats of their rented skycar as the convict drove and Lawson monitored the trace on her omni-tool. Doctor Cardo had left Nos Astra university soon after Miranda'a lecture and after making a quick stop at a grocery store he was heading home. Or at least Miranda hoped he was.

They were only four skycars behind Cardo and Jack had nothing short of determination on her face. "I have an idea of what this man did." Miranda said breaking the silence. "But given the situation I think I'd like to know a little more. If you don't mind."

"He did pretty much any fucked up thing you could think of. Tortured me, experimented on me, beat me. And..." Jack's sentence trailed off and she grew silent once more.

"He raped you?" Miranda guessed.

Jack only gave a silent nod. "A lot." she added. "I was just a kid, cheerleader."

Miranda sighed. "You didn't deserve any of that."

"No shit. Nobody does."

"I'm sorry I ever defended them. I was wrong about a lot of things back then."

Jack chuckled. "Yeah. You were."

"We'll make it right."

"We damn well better." There was a long period of silence between them as they continued to follow Cardo's skycar. Finally Jack decided to change the topic. "Your sister, she's a good kid."

Miranda smiled. "She is."

"Back when you took her from your father..."

"Yes?"

"How'd you do it?"

"It doesn't matter how I did it. All that matters is I did it. Once I saw what my father had done to me I couldn't let him do that again to another girl."

"We can't let Cardo do it again either." Jack said.

"I have no plans of letting him."

"Good. Thanks for setting me straight back there. I don't know what the hell I would have done if you weren't there."

"Something violent I'm sure." Miranda said while she continued to study her omni-tool.

Jack smirked. "Probably."

"What do you want to do with him, Jack?"

"What the hell do you think, Cheerleader? I wanna kill him. And I want to make that fucker feel it too."

"You sure about that?"

"Positive." Jack answered.

"I figured as much. If that's what you want, then we're going to have to make sure we do this right."

"Whatever. So long as we end him."

Suddenly Cardo's skycar began a rapid decent into a car park outside of a large expensive looking apartment complex which towered high above the streets below. "Time to see where this piece of shit, sleeps."

They followed him down and after waiting for Cardo to unload his groceries and hobble inside the complex Miranda and Jack followed from a distance. Cardo shot a greeting to an asari who sat behind the desk in the complex's lobby before he called the elevator. After he stepped inside and the doors closed Miranda and Jack hurried over to see the floor he took it to. "Top floor." Miranda said as she hit the up button to follow after him.

They rode the lift in silence and finally when they arrived at the Doctor's floor they hurried out of the elevator and hugged a nearby wall when they heard Cardo shuffling down the hallway with his bags of groceries. They both peeked around the corner and watched as Cardo came to a stop at the last apartment at the end of the hall. The door's scanner read Cardo and slid open.

Then the most unexpected sound echoed through the hall. The sound of a young girl's voice. "Daddy!" A smile came to Cardo's face and he dropped to one knee and set his bags down before a girl no older than six leapt into his arms and kissed his cheek.

Cardo chuckled. "Hello baby girl." he said and hugged his daughter.

* * *

**Notes-Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Man, it was a fun one to write. So yep, Cardo is a father. I'd love to hear what you think of that and of the whole chapter in the reviews! Thanks for reading and have an amazing day. **


	5. Back to Square One

**The Year 2176 **

**Pragia**

Jack's eyes were fixed out her window. To her the view of the small mess hall below where she saw the other children gather every now and then was the rest of the world. She'd never read a book, she'd never heard a song, she'd never seen a vid. For all she knew escape from the Teltin facility could very well bring her into a whole new level of hell. But the thought of one day breathing in fresh air for the first time in her life is all that kept her going through the torture of her daily life.

She'd been playing lame. The doctors thought there was something wrong with her and while the increased injections and sessions in that fucking steel chair had made the past few months worse than ever for her, it was worth it. At night when the guards were reduced and her surveillance wasn't monitored Jack discovered just what her biotics were capable of. She didn't know what it was they did to her, but she knew it was making her stronger. Much stronger than they realized.

Jack turned away from her window. She was tired of watching the other kids below her. She used to pretend that they were her friends, that someone else in this galaxy actually gave a shit about her. But being stuck in a cell for as long as she had killed that sort of youthful optimism. Jack knew the only thing that awaited her was more doctors. At night she dreamed of what it would be like to take their lives. Of what it would feel like to see the fear of death in their eyes before she crushed their skulls with her biotics. The thought made her smile.

She sat down on the stiff mattress of her cot. The old twisted springs below dug in to her like always. Some days she found sleeping on the ground to be preferable. When she was smaller she would curl up in a ball under her desk and drift off to sleep. She'd been in that room for so long that it should have felt like home. But Jack knew she didn't have a real home. Just like she didn't have a family, or a real name, or anything in her life but the promise of pain and suffering.

She heard a soft scuttling, a sound she had long learned meant rodents had found their way inside her cell again. Rodents big enough and disgusting enough to have evolved to life on Pragia. Jack pushed off her bed and glared in silence as a small group of three rodents meandered about. She raised one of her thin arms out in front of her and it began to glow blue. The trio of rodents was lifted by a strong biotic field into the air. They kicked their legs and spun in the air as Jack levitated them. Then the rodents began to squeal in pain and Jack clutched her open fingers into a tight fist which crushed the tiny rodent's bodies into mush instantly. She tossed the crumpled mess of crunched bones and flesh aside and laid down on her bed with her back towards the door.

She wasn't surprised when she heard the door swoosh open. "Another mess?" Cardo spat as he inspected the pile of gore. "You filthy girl. I should make you you eat this."

Jack didn't say anything. She knew why he was there. But she was too tired to fight him anymore like she used to.

"Nothing to say, Zero?" Cardo said sounding surprised. Jack remained silent and that made the Doctor frown. He strode across the cell and yanked her off the bed with a hard grip on her neck. "You will show me respect or so help me..."

"You'll what?" Jack spat.

Cardo slapped her across the face leaving a painful red mark before he tossed her to the ground and she landed with a hard thud on the steel floor. "Ungrateful little bitch."

Ungrateful? What the hell was there to be grateful for? she thought. She could have killed him then, it would have been easy. But it wouldn't have got her anything but brief satisfaction before some other doctor took his place. She'd let him think she was beaten. She'd bide her time and wait for her moment to strike. And she knew that moment was coming, Jack felt it in her gut; it had to be coming.

The doctor unbuckled his belt and Jack shut her eyes.

* * *

**Illium 2188**

Doctor Cardo lifted his daughter into the air and kissed her on the cheek. "Clara, I missed you!" He said and the young girl giggled with delight as he spun her around in the air in the hallway outside his apartment.

When he set her down and Clara stopped giggling she lifted a small glowing finger. "Daddy, look! Biotics!"

Cardo smiled. "That's right! Let's go have a look at that!" he said and lifted his grocery bags and followed his little girl inside before the door shut behind them.

Jack walked out from behind the corner and glared down the hallway. "Jack..." She heard Miranda call from behind her but she didn't answer. "Jack, we should get out of here."

"What the fuck." Jack muttered.

"I know. We can talk about it somewhere else. Please, we need to leave."

The convict's biotics began to crackle around her body. "I'm not going anywhere." she began marching down the hall towards the apartment before she felt Miranda pull her back.

"The situation has changed! You can't just march in there!"

Jack shoved Miranda off her. "You saw that little girl. He's doing it all over again."

Lawson nodded. "Probably."

"Then what the hell are we waiting for?"

"This isn't how we do this. Please let us go somewhere that we can discuss this."

Jack's biotics fizzled out. "Whatever."

* * *

The convict glared in silence at Miranda from where she sat across the table from her. "Jack..." Miranda repeated her name for what felt like the hundredth time.

The convict looked around at the small cafe Miranda had driven them too. There was hardly anyone else around to hear their conversation, Miranda had made sure of that. "What the fuck are we doing here, Cheerleader?"

"Dinner?"

"I'm not hungry."

"You have to eat something." Lawson waved the waiter over.

"How may I help you two this evening?" The Salarian waiter asked.

Miranda inspected the non-dextro section of the menu. "I'll take your entree salad with Varren."

"Ah, Excellent choice!" the waiter said enthusiastically and took the menu from Miranda before looking to Jack. "And for you, mam?"

"Steak." Jack said plainly and shoved the menu into the alien's hands.

"Um...we have several different steaks on the menu. Which one would you care to order?"

"Fucking pick one." Jack spat. Miranda shot an apologetic look to the salaraian before he scurried off towards the kitchen. "So what is this? You took me out in public so I wouldn't make a scene. That about right?"

"We have to discuss this rationally."

"There isn't shit to discuss, Miranda."

"You know just as well as I that isn't true." Lawson said sternly. "He has a child, Jack. We can't just kill the man without taking that into consideration."

"Like hell we can't! You should want this piece of shit dead just as much as I do. Even more so now. But what you're just gonna sit there and suggest we fucking let him go?!" The convict shouted.

Miranda was growing frustrated with her lover's attitude. "Dammit, Jack! Keep your bloody voice down. We have to be certain it's him before we do anything."

"It's him."

"How do you know for sure?"

"Have you forgotten your father's face?"

Miranda sighed. "No. I haven't. Regardless, we're not killing a man who has a daughter unless we know for sure it's him."

"Fine." Jack grunted. "So what do you want to do?"

"We'll break in to his apartment and confirm his identity. After that I'll figure out how to best...deal with him."

"Slowly and painfully." Jack hissed.

"What if it is him but he's changed. That little girl didn't seem displeased to see him."

"You ever been raped, Miranda?"

Lawson sat up straight and locked eyes with the convict. "No."

"How about tortured? Or experimented on?"

"No."

"You ever try to strangle yourself with your bed sheets when you were a kid? Or try to severe the veins in your arms with your teeth? Cardo drove me to do those things before I was even fourteen. You think someone like that can just change?"

"I get your point."

They sat at the table without saying anything for a while. Eventually the waiter brought their food and Miranda tried to change the subject. "Oriana's band is playing at a club in the city. She's invited us to go. Would you like to?"

"I don't care." Jack said as she forked her steak into her mouth and chewed with her mouth open. Miranda didn't dare correct her manners like usual.

Lawson tried for a second time. "Shepard told me she and Liara were looking into Admiral Shaw again." Jack just continued eating. Miranda gave up and they finished their dinner in silence.

* * *

They returned to their hotel suite. Once they stepped inside Jack made her way to the bed and laid down. "I'm going to take a shower." Miranda said. "Care to join me?"

"No." Jack answered.

Lawson's shoulder sunk and she stepped into the bathroom after getting nude. Thoughts raced in Miranda's mind as she washed herself alone. Jack never turned down sex. This situation was having an even bigger effect on her lover than she feared. Miranda had never seen Jack so upset. She had been angry after she learned Cardo was alive at the university but since discovering he had a daughter Jack had grown even worse.

She finished in the shower and dried her hair before wrapping a towel around her body and stepping out of the bathroom. Jack still sat on the bed and looked completely dejected. Miranda didn't catch her attention so she dropped her wet towel to the ground and displayed her naked body to her lover. Perhaps she could cheer her up this way. Miranda brought a hand between her legs and began to touch herself but Jack rolled over.

Miranda got under the covers under her lover and wrapped her arms around Jack while she placed kisses on her neck. "Fuck me, Jack." she whispered in her ear.

Jack batted her away. "I'm not in the mood, cheerleader."

Miranda snaked her hand down between Jack's legs. "Oh come on."

"I mean it, Miranda." The convict snapped.

Lawson heart sank and she jumped back off the bed to get changed into some fresh clothes. She turned back to Jack. "If we're going to do this. I need to know this is really what you want."

"There's no doubt in my mind."

"Killing someone like this...It's different."

"Killing is killing, Princess."

"Have you ever killed someone in cold blood?" Miranda asked.

Jack thought about it. "I don't know, maybe. All that shit's a blur to me now. "

"Well I have. And it's not something i'm proud of. What we're planning on doing is murder."

"No. It's fucking justice!" The convict cried sounding betrayed by Miranda's hesitance.

"Jack, i'm just trying to help you."

The tattooed woman threw the covers off her and jumped to her feet. "If you wanna help me, cheerleader. You'll help me put a long overdue end to Cardo. Nothing short of that is gonna cut it. I'm not leaving this planet until I watch him die. Now are you fucking with me or am I doing this by myself?"

"I already told you. Of course I'm with you!"

Jack advanced on her. "Are you?"

"Jack...you're scaring me." Lawson admitted.

"What the hell do you know about fear, Cerberus?" Jack said.

Miranda's eyes widened and filled with pain. "Cerberus?..." She opened her mouth to speak again but no words came.

Seeing the pain she had just caused Jack snapped out of it. "Shit, Miranda I'm..."

Lawson pushed past her and went out on to their room's balcony.

Jack buried her face in her hands. "Fuck!" She screamed. It didn't take her long to build up the courage to join her on the balcony. She found Miranda with her back towards her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

"I am trying here, Jack. I'm trying to make this right the only way I know how."

"I know."

"Then why would you say that to me? Do you think that I agree with what they did to you?"

"No. This whole thing is messed. I'm not thinking straight."

"No you're not. And you're scaring the shit out of me! You're acting like the last two years together never happened. I thought you had forgiven me."

"I did! I fucked up okay. I'm sorry. I just...I have to kill him, Miranda. There's no other choice."

"I know."

Jack leaned against the balcony railing and looked out at the city lights. "Seeing him again, it makes me feel like i'm that girl again. All alone and scared with nothing in my fucked up life but the promise of more pain."

Miranda sighed and leaned on the railing next to her. "You're never going to be alone again. Just don't shut me out. I won't pretend like I know what you went through. But I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this is settled once and for all."

Jack smiled and wrapped her strong arms around Miranda before kissing her. "I don't have a clue what I'd do without you, Cheerleader. I don't wanna sound like a pussy but...I couldn't ever go back to how it was before you."

"Neither could I."

Jack took Miranda's hand which wore her engagement ring. "When this is done, I wanna marry you. No more pissing around. We finish this and Cerberus, Pragia, all that shit is in the past for good. It'll be just about us. I'll even wear some girly ass frilly dress if you want me to."

Miranda smiled. "Then we better get started."

* * *

**Notes- This was a bit of a transitional chapter so I decided to keep it shorter than the other ones. The next update is gonna be a big one. **


	6. Run, Lawson, Run!

**Sydney Australia**

**The Year 2166**

Miranda Lawson sat alone in her room. On her bed rested a small rucksack which she had packed with everything she would need. She stared out her small bedroom window as rain danced on the glass. Miranda opened her omni-tool to check the hour, it was two in the morning and Lawson decided it was time.

She shrugged her bag over her shoulders and didn't bother taking one last look at her bedroom. The young raven haired girl silently crept past her father's bedroom and made her way out the back door. The rain splashed into the waters of their large pool as she ran past it towards the large private lab.

She couldn't believe she'd put up with him for as long as she had. She had tricked herself into loving her father long enough, now she felt nothing but hatred for the man. Her whole life had been dedicated to him, to his legacy to making him proud to always being perfect now all that was over. Miranda paused just outside the lab as that thought struck her, it was over. After tonight she'd be free.

She approached the locked door of Henry Lawson's laboratory. The display was red so Miranda opened her omni-tool and initiated a bypass. Most girls her age didn't even know you could bypass locks with an omni-tool let alone know how to do it. But Miranda Lawson wasn't like most girls.

She was inside the lab in seconds. She heard the sound of various lab equipment running as she stepped into the main room. Her eyes found the large glass chambers which she now knew housed her potential replacements. Miranda narrowed her eyes as she glared at the deformed bodies of the failed experiments inside the chambers. She wasn't sure what she came in here looking for but she had a good feeling something in here would help her. She turned to her father's terminal.

Miranda took a seat in front of the computer and when she powered it on it asked for a password. Lawson entered the password she had lifted from her father's omni-tool earlier and smiled when the terminal opened up the home screen.

A set of files were displayed on the home screen and right away one file name caught her attention. She opened the one marked "Project Oriana" and began reading. Miranda was still only sixteen years old but that didn't mean she wasn't a genius and she understood every word of Henry Lawson's project notes. He was cloning her, that much she had already guessed but his work detailed the potential for genetic engineering the likes of which haven't been seen before. And amazingly Miranda was able to spot several major mistakes her father had made in his work.

With the right resources available to her Miranda wagered she'd be able to build upon her father's work to not just create new life like her father had but also improve it; perfect it even. Henry's work, while inspired, could never measure up to that of his daughter's. In Miranda's hands the potential was staggering. Not that she would ever find the resources to act upon her potential. But the data had a far brighter future with her than it ever would have had with Henry Lawson. She chuckled, Miranda had always viewed her father as better than herself and yet here she was with concrete proof that at only sixteen years old she was smarter.

Miranda downloaded the data to her omni-tool and promptly deleted it from her father's terminal before moving on to his email. She found nothing of interest initially until she spotted a name she had heard her father say before. Cerberus.

The young girl opened the messages and read a brief log of a conversation her father had with a mysterious individual identified only as "The Illusive Man". She was able to gather that her father had been commissioned to work for Cerberus for some time now. Lawson figured the Oriana data must be valuable to her father's contact. Miranda downloaded this Illusive Man's contact code to her omni-tool as well before she lifted the terminal off the desk with her biotics and tossed it across the room.

Miranda's rage took over and she unleashed all her anger on her father's lab. Her biotics tore the room apart, glass and spilled chemicals littered the floor and then Miranda turned her attention back to the growing infants inside the large glass chambers. Lawson stalked towards them with biotic energy crackling across her body and she raised a fist in preparation to strike open the chambers before a sharp sound made her relent. From a small adjoining room Miranda heard the unmistakable cry of an infant.

Lawson cautiously stepped into the room and sure enough inside of a makeshift crib a tiny baby stirred. "He did it..." Miranda muttered to herself as she inched closer.

She cautiously reached her hands out to the child. Carefully she lifted the baby into her arms and stared into the crying infant's eyes.

"Put her down!" Miranda heard a voice shout from behind her. She turned and found Henry Lawson slowly making his way down the stairs into the lab with a gun aimed at his two daughters.

"Or what, father? You'll shoot me?" Miranda said as she held the baby closer to herself.

"Miranda, put your sister down right now!"

Miranda narrowed her eyes. "My sister? Don't you mean my replacement?"

"There seems to be no end to the disappointment you bring me, girl." Henry spat as he looked around at his destroyed lab.

"You're unbelievable. I can't believe I ever fooled myself in to thinking that I loved you! That this, any of this was normal. I'm not letting you do it again. Not to me. And not to her."

"That choice is not yours to make. You want to leave? Fine, go! But Oriana is mine."

"I'm taking her with me."

Henry aimed his gun at Miranda's head. "The hell you are."

"I saw your data, father. Sloppy work really."

"What would you know?"

"I know you were misdiagnosing hormonal imbalances."

Henry chuckled. "Perhaps you're not a complete loss after all, Miranda."

"I deleted it."

"You what?!" Henry gritted his teeth in rage. "You are a stupid stupid little girl. I'm going to ship you away for good for that."

"Don't worry. I saved myself a copy." Miranda said with a smile. "I'm leaving with her and there's nothing you can do to stop me. If you try I will send that data to your Illusive Man. Then we'll see how useful you are to him."

Henry's tone quickly changed. "There's no need for that."

Miranda smirked. "Get out of our way."

"How far do you think you can run before I find you?" Henry asked. Her father didn't lower his gun so Miranda held the baby higher in her arms hoping he wouldn't fire at his proudest creation. "Alright Miranda, I have to hand it to you. I underestimated you. Put Oriana down and I'll forget all about this. Deal?" Henry said as he lowered his gun.

Miranda summoned her biotics. "No deal." she hissed and blasted her father on to his back. As Henry scrambled to get back to his feet she delivered a powerful kick to his head as she sprinted past him with Oriana clutched in her arms.

A gunshot rang out from behind her as Henry Lawson fired at his daughter while she ran up the stairs and into the rain while Oriana screamed in her arms. Miranda ran for her father's skycar, she had only been driving for a few months but it was her only chance of escape. Two of her father's house guards came barreling towards Miranda with guns drawn and she threw the strongest biotic strike she could muster at them which blasted the two men back into the pool. Another shot rang out from behind her and she glanced over her shoulder to see Henry Lawson clutching at his bleeding face as he fired warning shots in the air in a failed attempt to get her to stop. Nothing could stop her now, she'd rather die than go back and to let the same thing that happened to her happen to Oriana.

"Miranda! Stop! You know I'll find you eventually!" Henry shouted over the storm.

Miranda didn't listen to him. She found the skycar parked out front of her father's mansion. She climbed inside and carefully set Oriana in the passenger side before she started up the engine. Another shot rang out, this time striking the skycar.

Suddenly the engine stalled, perhaps her father had shot something important. She didn't have time to figure out her next move before the car door was lifted open and her father dragged Miranda out kicking and screaming and threw her down on the wet pavement.

"Did you really think you could just steal your sister from me?" Henry barked as her grabbed the girl by the collar with one hand and gripped his pistol in the other.

"I'm not stealing her." Miranda said before leaning down and biting as hard as she could into the flesh of her father's hand. Blood filled the young girl's mouth and Henry dropped her with a scream along with his gun as he clutched at his bleeding wound. Miranda snatched the pistol from the ground. "I'm rescuing her!" she screamed before pulling the trigger.

The bullet went through her father's leg and the man flopped to the ground as Miranda scrambled back into the skycar and started the engine. She took off leaving her father screaming out in rain almost in harmony with the ear splitting cries coming from the baby on the passenger side.

* * *

**Illium 2188 **

Miranda looked to her right and smiled at her younger sister. Oriana Lawson chuckled nervously, "What's up, Miri? Why are you just staring at me?"

"Doesn't matter." Miranda answered. Together they walked through one of Nos Astra's many marketplaces. It was Oriana's idea to go shopping.

"If you say so. Hey where's Jack? I thought she'd be joining us."

"Jack wanted to sleep in. It is our vacation after all." Miranda said as they passed a group of asari.

"Oh, well I really like her."

Miranda grinned. "Yeah? Me too."

"She's way cooler than anyone I ever thought you'd be dating." Ori teased.

"Thank you?" Miranda answered with uncertainty.

"Is she alright after whatever happened at school?"

"Yes she's fine. Sorry about that. Listen Ori, there's a reason I asked you out today."

"Besides shopping for underpants?!" Ori giggled as she held up her bag.

Miranda chuckled and took her sister's hand to lead her to a nearby table. They sat down and Miranda took a moment to think of how to phrase what she needed to tell her little sister. "Jack and I are on a mission."

"Oh! Like for the Alliance?"

"Sort of. We're doing something off the record and we both could end up in a lot of trouble if things don't go according to plan."

Ori grew serious. "Are you two going to be safe?"

Lawson nodded. "We'll be fine. Jack and I have been through much worse. But what we're doing could get us in trouble with the police if it goes wrong."

"Police? Miri, what the heck are you guys going to do?"

"It's classified." Miranda lied. "Listen, if we get in trouble I need you to call someone for me and explain the situation. She'll be able to get us out." Lawson opened her omni-tool and sent the contact code to her sister's device.

"Uh...okay. Who's number is this?"

"Commander Shepard's."

Oriana grinned. "No way! You just gave me Commander Shepard's personal number?!"

"Please don't use it to prank call the savior of the galaxy." Miranda said.

The younger Lawson laughed. "Miri, you know I can't promise that."

Miranda rolled her eyes. She trusted her sister with Shepard's number but more importantly she needed a safety net if thing went south. Shepard was that safety net.

"Hey are you two coming to my show?" Oriana asked.

"We're going to try to." Suddenly Lawson's omni-tool buzzed with an incoming call. "Excuse me." she said to her sister and moved out of ear shot before answering.

"He just left his place." Jack said on the other end of the line.

"Alright. Do not go in without me. We have to be careful with this."

"I got it, cheerleader!"

"I'll be there soon."

"Better hurry up, babe." Jack said before hanging up.

After a brief explanation to her sister Miranda headed out for Cardo's apartment.

* * *

Miranda stepped out of the rapid transit and approached her lover. Jack was leaning up against the outside of Cardo's apartment building with her tattooed arms crossed. "Is he still gone?" Miranda asked.

"Yeah. Let's go see what this piece of shit has been up to."

Miranda and Jack stepped inside and passed the asari behind the front desk before calling the elevator. "Are you feeling better?"

Jack grunted. "Yeah I'm fucking peachy." she said just before the lift arrived and they stepped inside.

"You know what I mean."

Jack seized Miranda around the waist and kissed her ferociously. "Don't worry, Princess. We get this done and I'll fuck your brains out back at our hotel." She said after releasing the raven haired woman.

"I'm not just doing this so you'll fuck me, Jack."

"I know. I'm not an idiot, I know most people wouldn't do what you're doing for me. And I owe you."

"There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you. You never owe me anything."

Jack crossed her arms. "Same goes for you."

They finally arrived at the top floor and they cautiously approached Cardo's apartment. "You know how to open this shit?" Jack asked as came to a stop in front of his apartment door.

Miranda smirked. "Please." a few quick commands with her omni-tool and she hacked the lock and the door slid open.

"Damn, that was quick." Jack said.

"I've done this sort of thing before. Now don't touch anything. We can't let him know we were here."

"You're the boss, cheerleader."

They both stepped inside the apartment and were shocked by how ordinary it was. A small couch was directly ahead in the living room in front of a vid screen, to their left was a small kitchenette and to their right was two closed bedroom doors. "This is...not what I expected." Miranda said.

"He's fucking hiding something." Jack spat and marched further inside the home.

Miranda spotted a small collection of photos displayed on a nearby table and moved to inspect them. In the images she saw Cardo and his daughter, each time the young girl had a genuine smile on her face. "No mother." Miranda commented.

Jack turned around. "Huh?"

"It's only him and his daughter in these pictures. That seems strange."

"He probably stole this kid too."

Miranda looked back at the child. "No I can see the family resemblance. I think it's his actual daughter."

"Whatever."

Lawson saw a small paper card with a crude child drawing on it accompanied with some misspelled words. "Why I love my daddy?" she read off it.

As Jack continued to comb through the doctor's apartment she came across a chest full of toys. "Look at this."

Miranda joined her side and glared at the toys. "I'm sorry to say this again, Jack. But are you sure this is the same man?"

"It has to be." Jack answered. But her voice didn't sound entirely certain anymore.

"Let's go see the bedrooms." Miranda said. They stepped inside the first bedroom and found two beds crammed into the room. "Odd. He sleeps in the same room as his daughter?" Lawson commented.

"That's fucked up."

"Maybe. But not exactly enough to condemn him."

"Fine. Let's go see what's in the other room then." They exited the room and moved to investigated the last bedroom but found the door to be locked. "Why the hell is this one locked?"

Miranda opened her omni-tool and began a bypass. "Let's find out." the lock installed on the bedroom door was much more advanced than the one on the apartment's entrance. When it finally slid open Miranda and Jack stood is silence.

In the middle of the room sat a steel interrogation chair with leather straps on the arms. A camera was set up in front of the chair and a collection of syringes and other medical equipment rested on a table next to it. A bay of terminals was also housed behind the chair.

Jack balled her fists and her chest heaved as she began breathing heavily. "What the fuck..." was all the convict was able to mutter.

"Jack, perhaps you should leave I can..."

"Fuck that. I need to see what this bastard has done." Jack said as she approached the terminals and opened up the files marked video archives.

Miranda walked up behind her lover and they watched in silence.

The first video played and was time stamped 2174. A skinny girl was strapped into a chair and it took Miranda a minute to recognize it to be Jack without her tattoos. Her lover was much younger and in her early teens but Lawson recognized her mouth.

The young Jack screamed every swear word Miranda knew before Cardo slapped her hard across the face and silenced her. Miranda tightened her fists at the sight of it. "Formula B34 was a success with Subject Zero and her biotic abilities are reacting positively to the serum."

The tattoo free Jack began spitting at the doctor and swearing. "I told you to shut up!" Cardo shouted and slapped her again. "Now if only we could do something about Zero's attitude." he said before ending the log.

Miranda reached down and took Jack's hand. She wanted to take the convict into her arms but instead Jack opened a file that was time stamped only a few days ago.

The second video played and a young girl who Miranda now recognized as Cardo's daughter was strapped into the chair in the same room they were currently standing in. Tears streamed from the girl's eyes as she struggled against her bonds. "Daddy! Why are you doing this to me?!"

"Clara, darling this is for your own good." Cardo answered before turning to address the camera. "Subject has begun showing signs of biotic progression and I believe it is time to move the experiment into stage three." The doctor snatched a syringe off the table and extracted a colored liquid from a bottle. "Alright baby, this might sting."

"No! Please! Daddy, Stop!" Clara screamed. "No needle! I'll be good I promise!"

Cardo ignored his daughter's cries and plunged the injection into her arm. The little girl began spasming in the chair while blood started to run from her nose and as Jack watched on tears began to well in her eyes. Eventually the girl stopped shaking uncontrollably and continued sobbing.

The doctor sighed. He reached for his needle again and extracted a different colored liquid before injecting his daughter again causing the girl's eyes to flutter closed and her body to fall still. "Things were so much simpler with Subject Zero. The second injection will ensure she has no memory of the test so with luck I'll be able to adjust the numbers and try again soon."

Miranda closed the video log and both she and Jack stood in silence for a moment until Jack spoke up. "This is my fault, Miranda." she whimpered.

Lawson took her into her arms and Jack buried her face in the taller woman's chest. "Of course it's not." Miranda said as she stroked the convict's brown hair.

"I should have finished him when I had the chance on Pragia. Now this girl has suffered through the same shit because I fucked that up."

"We're going to fix this." Miranda promised. "We're going to kill him."

* * *

**Notes- Okay this story is reaching it's climax. Only a few more chapters remain. Sorry this one took a while but I had to make sure it was right. I want to thank ReavansMask for helping me out with that. Are you reading "Ashara Shepard: The Fourth Life"? Because you should be. Anywho hope you enjoyed this chapter. What did you think of Miranda's escape from Henry Lawson? And the discovery that Cardo is still doing his experiments on his daughter. Tell me in the reviews :)**


	7. Jack's Escape

**Warning- There is both graphic violence and sexual material in this chapter. **

* * *

**The Year 2177**

**Pragia **

_Boom!_

Jack was awake on on her feet before the second muffled explosion sounded. "What the fuck?" she said to herself as she looked around at her dark cell and found nothing out of the ordinary.

_Boom! _

There it was again. This time she felt the ground tremble beneath her. She couldn't tell if she was imagining this or not, she'd been plagued by visions of her imagination since she was a little girl but something about this felt different.

_Boom! _

No this was real. Jack could feel it in her gut. She turned around and ran up to her window to look outside. Below her a group of kids ran together in one direction with biotics flaring. The young girl narrowed her eyes and before she had time to analyze the scene a fourth explosion sounded but this time the lights in the facility all went dark.

Jack couldn't hear anything but the sound of herself breathing as she stood still in total darkness. Then suddenly she heard a faint popping in the distance before her cell was bathed in red light. The emergency power had kicked in and Jack's heart nearly burst through her chest.

Her cell door, the same door she'd spent almost her entire life staring at, was open. The brief power failure had given her the opportunity she'd been dreaming of for as long as she could remember and she had no intentions of wasting it.

Jack sprang for the open door. Her body surged with biotics as she ran out into the hallways outside her door. She tightened her fists when the first guard turned the corner. The man was wearing light armor but he still let out a scream as the girl barreled towards him. He reached for his gun but it was too late. With a fierce cry Jack lifted the man into the air and smashed him against the wall leaving a large blood stain.

The guard coughed and blood spilled past his lips, Zero's first strike had rendered his ribs and back broken and ruptured a few internal organs but he still raised a hand up in desperation as Jack stalked towards the man. "Zero, please..."

Jack didn't want to hear it. She brought her foot down on the man's face over and over again until his head was nothing but a bloody mess on the steel floor. Usually there was a small squad of guards just outside her cell, but they had mostly disappeared and left behind only this one poor idiot to guard her. Jack knew this was her chance. Bits of the man's brains were still stuck to Jack's foot as she ran further into the Teltin facility.

She didn't know where she was going. Every turn she took seemed to drag her further and further into unknown territory. Outside of her cell, the lab and the arena Jack had never seen much of the facility she'd called home for most of her life. A few more guards found her and Jack ripped them to threads with her biotics. She left the last one crying for mercy as his bones poked through his twisted and broken body.

Eventually she found a staircase so she scrambled up it hoping it would lead her to freedom. But when the door at the top of the stairs slid open she found not guards but a group of fellow kids. Her escape must have triggered a riot and the other kids had escaped. The children sneered at Jack and their bodies glowed blue before they began throwing attacks her way. Jack was able to just barley dodge their biotics before retaliating with the most powerful blast she could muster.

All four of the other kids were tossed back to the ground and Jack sprang on top of the closest one and bit her teeth down into the young boy's throat. She tore the flesh away and left him to bleed to death or drown on his own blood, whichever came first.

The other kids ran in different direction to get away from Jack so she kept on her path to freedom. She needed to figure out how to get out of here and she had to do it fast.

* * *

Doctor Nicholas Cardo was killing time in the security control offices watching the feed of the facility's cameras when he first heard signs of the riot. Before long the security control's comm began to ring and the officer sitting next to Cardo answered. "Who is this? What's happening?"

"Security Officer Zemkl, Teltin facility. The subjects are out of their cells! They're tearing the place up!" Zemkl answered. Cardo wondered why he bothered mentioning the facility by name before the reality of the situation hit him. Cardo shot to his feet and the security officer continued speaking. "Subject Zero is going to get loose I need permission to terminate. I repeat, permission to terminate!"

Cardo shoved the officer aside and leaned in to speak into the comm. "All subjects besides Zero are expendable. Keep Jack alive!" He didn't know why he used that name Zero insisted on being addressed by but he quickly vowed to never let it happen again.

"Understood," Zemkl said. "I'll begin the lockdown procedures asap."

Cardo grabbed the young guard next to him by the shoulder. "Keep your eyes on these screens and tell me where to find Subject Zero."

"But sir, where are you going?!" the guard asked.

"To salvage the experiment. Or die trying"

* * *

Jack was dripping with blood and none of it was her own. Her overcharged biotic amp was getting more use in the past few minutes than it ever had before. She prowled slowly towards another corner and could hear the voice of a doctor just out of sight.

"It's all fallen to pieces. The subjects are rampaging, and Zero is loose." Jack clenched her teeth when she heard the doctor call her that. She hated it, it was just one more thing they did to dehumanize her. "We're shutting Teltin down. What a disaster." the doctor continued as Jack inched closer to the corner. "We'll infiltrate and piggyback onto the Alliance's Ascension program. Hopefully that will..."

Jack rounded the corner and sprinted towards the bald man standing alone on the vid-comm. Her body crackeling with powerful blue energy as the man struggled to respond. "Who are..." Zero, wait!" he screamed as Jack lifted him off the ground with her powers and smashed him down as hard she could.

The bald doctor tried to crawl away but before he could Jack turned him over and raised a glowing fist behind her head. "Wait!" he pleaded again.

"How the fuck do I get out of here?!" Jack screamed.

"What?"

"How do I get out?!" she repeated.

"The landing pad on the roof! There should be s-shuttles! Just keep going up and you'll find it! " the doctor cried. "Now please..." he didn't get a chance to finish before Jack snapped his neck. She kept going up until she found herself in the large room where the arena fights were held.

The entire room was in chaos. Guards and subjects fighting for their lives and biotics and bullets being fired off in a seemingly endless stream of violence. An automated drone flew up in front of Jack's face and drew her attention away from the carnage before her. The drone's gun began to spin up and so Jack grabbed it in a field of energy and tossed it towards the struggle before diving in.

Jack ripped everyone before her apart. Sinking her teeth into anyone who got to close and tearing away their flesh and pounding her fists into their faces. She used her biotics to throw them like ragdolls across the open room and to shatter their bones. Eventually only one half dead guard stood between her and freedom. The young girl was caked in gore and fresh blood as she stepped over the twisted bodies of subjects and guards towards the only other survivor.

"Oh god! Please!" He pleaded for his life and Jack almost felt sorry for him before she recognized him. The broken man before her was the same asshole who used to drag her to the arena fights, who used to beat her when she resisted and who used to reach his hand down her pants when the doctors weren't looking. "Zero! Stop! I'm sorry!"

"Not yet you're not." Jack growled and pounced on the man. She grabbed his head with both hands and smashed it against the steel floor before plunging both her thumbs into the man's eyes. He screamed as blood poured from his now empty eye sockets and Jack silenced him with a quick stomp.

She got to her feet and suddenly became aware of a searing hot pain in one of her arms. She looked down and found that a bullet must have grazed her in the struggle but she hadn't even noticed the gun being fired at her. Then something on the ground caught her attention. A faint glimmer of light danced on the ground, there was almost a sense of magic to it as Jack marveled at the tight beam of light that shone down from the cracks in the ceiling.

Despite the pain her body was in, despite the lives she had taken and the carnage she had just fought through a smile came to Jack's face for a reason she couldn't point to. She inched closer to the alien phenomenon and reached a hand out to it. The sunlight glimmered on her blood soaked hand and Jack was overtaken with a powerful need to be press on. To be free of this facility once and for all.

She kept moving until eventually she came to the last door between her and the outside world. As Jack prepared to take her first step outside a sudden and agonizingly painful jolt of electricity struck her. She fell to her knees and screamed out as her collar continued to shock her. It soon became to much for her and Jack fell to the ground. That's when she saw him.

Doctor Cardo approached her with his omni-tool glowing in the darkness. "Did you really think you could escape, Zero?"

Jack struggled back to her feet and Cardo shocked her again sending her back to her knees. "You're n-not stopping me!" she screamed.

The doctor chuckled. "Please tell me, what is it that you think awaits you out there? Freedom? Happiness? Love?"

Tears brimmed in Jack's eyes and she attempted to crawl towards the door and he shocked her again. "You're an experiment, Zero. Nothing more than an animal. Nobody will ever really care about you."

"Fuck you." Jack muttered.

Cardo eyed the blood soaked girl. "Look at what you've done just in this foolish escape attempt. The damage you've caused, the lives you've taken. You're a savage. We engineered you to kill. It appears we've succeeded. Do you know what they would do to a creature like you out there? They'd see you for what you are and they'll either lock you up again or kill you. The only future you have is with me, Zero. You'll never be anything more than a killer. And you'll never be free."

"No..." Jack whimpered as she propped herself up by her hands.

Cardo entered the command on his omni-tool again and electrocuted the girl again. "What was that, Zero?"

She leapt towards the doctor with a fierce cry and took hold of the man's arm. A powerful biotic field surrounded the doctor's limb and fear filled his eyes. "My name is Jack!" she screamed before tearing Cardo's arm clean off his body taking his omni-tool with it.

Cardo screamed in agony and fell to the floor. Jack lifted the severed arm above her head and clubbed her tormenter with it while she howled with rage. Eventually the man fell still in a pool of his own blood and Jack spit on his face before she stumbled towards the last door.

With the bleeding arm still clutched in her hand she opened it. A wave of cold air struck her and Jack took a deep breath of fresh air. She went to take her first step before a ragged voice stopped her. "T-There's no place for you. Yo-...You can't change. You'll never survive."

Jack turned around to see Cardo still barely alive on the ground, his eyes struggling to keep open. "I'll do more than fucking survive."

The doctor's eyes closed and his head fell back. Jack finally took her first free steps and the sun shown down on her as she raced to the landing pad. She spotted one of the facilities workers sprinting away from her towards the last shuttle landed on the rooftop. Jack blasted him to the ground and advanced on him. "You! Can you fly?" Jack asked. The man nodded franticly, his eyes glued to the severed arm in the blood soaked girl's hand. "Get me off this planet and maybe i'll let you live."

* * *

**Illium 2188 **

Jack leaned against the guard railing of her hotel room balcony and looked below to the skycars that raced by. It was nighttime in Nos Astra and Miranda had left Jack alone in the room to gather "Supplies" from contacts she still maintained from her Cerberus days. Jack didn't know what "Supplies" meant but she trusted Miranda knew what she was doing. And the irony of her lover's Cerberus connections being used for this endeavor wasn't lost on the Convict.

As she waited for Lawson to return she gazed out to the city lights and watched her breath trail away in the cold air. She'd been on edge ever since she'd discovered Cardo was alive but his daughter had brought things to a new level. Miranda could say whatever she wanted but Jack knew what happened to that little girl could have been avoided if she had just finished the job back on Pragia instead of leaving Cardo to bleed out. But she hadn't and now it was her chance to make up for that.

After Pragia Jack's whole life had been nothing but a violent blur of lies, betrayal and pain. Cardo had been right, the galaxy didn't seem to have a place for her. That is until Shepard came along. Jack smiled as she thought about the Commander and entertained the idea of calling the woman before the hotel's door swooshed open behind her.

The tattooed biotic spun around and saw Miranda make her way inside with a small black case under arm. She stepped off the balcony and towards the dark haired woman and Miranda set the case down on the bed.

"What the hell is that?" Jack asked.

"Things we don't want to be caught with." Miranda answered before opening up the case.

A set of needles and chemicals was inside. Jack picked up one of the syringes. "Fitting." she commented.

"I thought you'd approve of that."

"Why do we need two though?"

"One for Cardo and one for the girl." Miranda answered.

"What the fuck, cheerleader! We're not killing the kid!"

"Of course not! God, Jack what do you take me for?" Miranda said as she snatched the syringe from her lover and placed it back in the box. "This is for tranquilizer. We're using his apartment for the kill site so we'll have to knock both him and the girl out before we set things up. That is unless you wish to do things quicker, we could always kill him in his sleep."

"No way. I want him to know." Jack said.

"Know what?"

"That he was wrong."

Miranda picked up another object from the case that was shrouded by a black cloth. Lawson removed the cloth and revealed a very large and very sharp knife and handed it to Jack. "Suppose you'll need that then."

The convict smiled and noticed the way it made Miranda's eyes drop. "You're cool with this right?"

"It's nothing I haven't done before." Lawson answered.

"Be straight with me, babe. Tell me you want this too."

"I do."

"He needs to die. You saw what he did."

The raven haired woman nodded as she took a seat on the bed. "I saw. You don't need to convince me. I just want to make sure you're not losing yourself, Jack."

"This is who I am, Cheerleader. It's who i've always been. He doesn't just get to do what he did to me, what he did to his own fucking daughter, he doesn't get to just walk away from that."

"We'll make sure he doesn't."

Jack stared down at the knife in her hand. "What did it feel like to kill your father?"

"It felt like a relief. It wasn't just about vengeance, it was about keeping Oriana safe. So what's killing Cardo about?"

Jack was silent. "It's about setting things right."

"Alright."

"Miranda when this is done do me a favor."

Lawson wrapped one arm around Jack and rested her head on the convict's shoulder. "Anything."

Jack set the knife back into the case and closed it. "Never talk about this shit again. Once we leave Illium this never happened."

"I promise."

Jack leaned in and kissed Miranda.

They undressed each other without saying a word. They'd done it so many times it was routine and before long both women were naked and under the covers together. Their tongues danced as Jack rolled over on top of Miranda and snaked one hand down between her lovers long legs. She slipped two fingers into Miranda's heat and Lawson moaned into the kiss as Jack's other hand teased one of her nipples into stiffness.

The tattooed woman threw the covers off them with a small biotic pulse and slid down the bed to situate herself so they could grind their parts together. Their legs interlocked and both began to thrust their hips as they leaned back and let out dueling cries of passion. Soon Miranda came for the first time and she fell back on to the mattress while her chest heaved. But Jack was still not satisfied so she quickly buried her face between Miranda's legs. Lawson's already stimulated body quickly began to approach a second climax, "Oh god, Jack! Yes!" she cried before her body tensed and she fell back to the pillows again. But Jack didn't give up, her fingers returned to their position insider her lover and the convict used her biotics to vibrate them as the pumped them into her fiancee's pussy. "Jack! Uh! Slow down I'm goin-Ahh!" Miranda screamed and a jet of wetness shot out from between Lawson's legs and soaked the sheets.

Jack quickly bent down to continue pleasuring her. "Jack, enough." Miranda said between deep breaths. "It's too much." The convict looked up. "I need to catch my breath." she rasped.

The convict nodded and silently crawled back up to the head of the bed and laid down with her back to Lawson.

Miranda turned her around pulled her into her arms. "Jack? What's wrong?"

"Tell me you love me, Miranda. Please." Jack whimpered.

"I love you." Miranda complied. "You know I love you. And you don't need to fuck me to have me say that. Is that what that was about?" Jack stayed quiet. "Talk to me. What am I missing?"

"Nothing. Just go to sleep." Jack said and closed her eyes with Miranda's arms still wrapped around her.

* * *

Oriana Lawson didn't even know it was past midnight as she sang along to the music she had blaring in her apartment. "Be my love, be my man, be with me." She air-guitared along with the instrumental. "Hold me, thrill me-" The sound of her apartment buzzer made Ori stop singing immediately and shut off her music before looking at the time.

"Crap! Oh no!" She had a test tomorrow she was supposed to be studying for but her mind was dragged away from that worry when her buzzer sounded again. "I'm coming!" she shouted in the sweetest voice she could muster. She was wearing just a pink night shirt and panties but she didn't want to keep her angry neighbor waiting so she ran for the door. She must have woken them up with her music.

She opened up her door without checking the hall cam. "I'm so sorry I..." her eyes widened when she saw it was not her neighbor at the door but instead a familiar one armed man. "P-Professor Moser?"

"Doctor Moser." Cardo corrected her.

"Doctor um...excuse me." Oriana said and crossed her arms over her chest when she suddenly felt very uncomfortable standing before the man half dressed. "This is a little strange, Doctor. Why are you at my apartment?"

Cardo stepped past the girl and entered her home uninvited. "Hey!" Ori cried.

"Your sister."

"Miranda? What about her?"

"Is she staying here with you?" The man with the robotic arm asked.

"No she's not. And I think you need to leave!"

Cardo ignored her and continued to snoop around her apartment. "There was a break in at my home. Luckily my daughter and I were not home, someone could have gotten hurt. But strangely nothing was taken. I almost didn't notice. "

"Why would that have anything to do with my sister?"

"Why indeed." He said.

"I'm sorry sir but either you tell me why you're here or I'm going to call the police."

"I'm not going anywhere until I get what I came for. I think we need to have a conversation, Miss Lawson." Cardo closed Ori's door and locked it. The bald man turned and smiled, "Just the two of us."

* * *

**Notes- So this one took awhile. Sorry it ended up a little long but hopefully it was a good one! I had a lot of things I needed to make sure fit with the canon based on what Jack says in her loyalty mission (Like the half dead guard between her and freedom etc.) so hopefully the flashback turned out okay. Sorry but there was no way that scene wasn't gonna be graphic but hopefully it showed how far Jack has come. Tell me what you thought of it, that ending, and the chapter in general in the reviews! And have a fantastic day : ) **


	8. A Promise

**New Castle Australia**

**The Year 2166**

It was just past midnight as Miranda Lawson stepped inside her motel room. Living the life of luxury she had with her father, Lawson had never seen such a shithole. But it was the only place that was sleazy enough to allow a sixteen year old girl to rent a room.

The baby stirred in her arms and Miranda held Oriana close to her chest hoping that the comforting embrace would ensure that her sister would stay asleep. She needed to catch her breath and figure out her next move. Things hadn't gone exactly as planned and now Miranda had nothing but a few credits and her father's stolen skycar. He'd be able to track her down easily enough and she knew he was already trying.

Oriana's eyes fluttered open and it wasn't long before the baby was crying. Miranda held her close and shushed her as she rocked her up and down. "I don't know what you want. Please." she pleaded to the child. But Ori still screamed and Miranda held her out at arms length to inspect her. She wasn't wet and Miranda had already fed her on the road. Even though she was a genius Miranda was completely out of her element. How could she be expected to look after a kid when she was still just a kid herself.

Her original plan to find Niket and hide from her father had gone out the window when she had found Oriana. She couldn't burden her friend with this choice. She had made it herself and so she would have to deal with it herself.

Oriana continued to bellow and the neighboring room began to bang on the wall. "Shut that fucking baby up!" a large sounding man screamed on the other side.

Miranda rocked her sister in her arms. Her mind was franticly searching for ways to calm the child. Then she got an idea. Miranda had never really listened to music but softly she began to hum a sweet melody to the child and smiled when she found Ori's screams begin to silence and after a few minutes the raven haired girl had put the baby to sleep.

Miranda set her down in the center of the bed and quickly began crafting a makeshift crib for her sister from the blankets. When she set Ori down into it Miranda felt a strange feeling inside her, a gentle caring warmth that was foreign to her. She reached a hand out and softly stroked the baby's cheek.

She knew what she had to do. Miranda opened her omni-tool and found her father's mysterious contact saved in her device. She began to craft her message immediately.

_Illusive Man, _

_You don't know me but I have an offer you can't afford to pass up. I know you've been funding Henry Lawson for your organization. But what I can offer you makes him obsolete and I offer it free of charge. I have attached part of Henry Lawson's work with my own personal improvements to demonstrate my potential. __Contact me so we may set up a meeting. And don't take too long._  


_M.L. _

She attached her improved project notes to the message and hit send. It had only taken her two hours to improve upon her father's work. What she had already accomplished with the data would have taken her father weeks if not months. She hoped it would be enough to convince this man to help her. Because as much as she hated to admit it, Miranda needed help.

She spent an hour waiting for reply and watching Oriana sleep. Rain still fell outside and beat down on the Motel room's sole window. She listened to the weather while she laid down on the bed with her eyes open. Suddenly her device blipped and Miranda shot to her feet and opened the message.

_Impressive work. Two of my agents will meet you tomorrow at the location attached. I look forward to meeting you. _

The second Miranda closed the Illusive Man's message she began to worry if she made the right decision before she remembered she didn't have any other choice. She looked to Oriana again and whispered, "I won't let him take you. I promise I'll always protect you."

* * *

**Illium 2188**

Doctor Cardo circled around the young Lawson as his eyes ran up and down her body.

"You need to leave right now!" Ori screamed.

Cardo silenced her with the back of his robotic hand and Oriana fell to the ground with a painful thud. He was on top of her by the time she began to crawl away and he flipped her over on her back and held her wrists above her head. "Why was your bitch sister at my house?! Where is she?" he screamed.

Tears streamed down Ori's face. "I don't know! I swear!"

The man released his hold on one of her wrists and brought his fingers to the hem of the girl's nightshirt. "I guess we'll find out." he said as he slowly started to pull the shirt up.

Oriana spit in the man's face and used her now free hand to punch the man in the temple.

Cardo grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up to her feet before shoving her on to the couch in front of the vidscreen. Ori scrambled to her feet and Cardo slapped her again and shoved her back to the sofa. "Sit and watch."

"Please!" Ori cried with a red mark on her cheek.

"Shut up." Cardo spat and opened his omni-tool to stream the video on the girl's vidscreen. Oriana saw what looked like surveillance footage of Miranda and Jack snooping around a small apartment. "Luckily I back up all my security footage or that little VI your sister released would have succeeded in covering her tracks."

"I don't know anything about this!"

"She's trying to steal my work isn't she? What is she after?!"

"I don't know!" Ori sobbed.

"Who is the other woman?" Cardo studied the recording of the tattooed woman. The resolution wasn't quite good enough to see her face clearly but there was something familiar about the woman.

Oriana looked at Jack as she bent over a box of toys in the recording. "I've never seen her before." she lied.

Cardo reached behind him and unholstered his pistol before aiming it at the young girl's head. "Don't lie to me!"

"I'm not! Why would you come to me? I don't have anything to do with this!" Ori screamed as tears continued to pour from her eyes.

The doctor shrugged and shut off the video. "I figured as much. But when I came to the realization your sister was tampering with my work I knew she would have to be dealt with like the others who have come before her. But unlike the others she was a much harder target to locate. Until I remembered her dear sister jumping to her rescue at her pathetic excuse for a lecture. I need to draw her out and you provide me with the perfect means for doing so. By tomorrow this minor annoyance will be dealt with thanks to you."

"You clearly don't know my sister!"

"I don't wish to know her. I just want her gone." He said before grabbing Ori by the neck and slamming her into the coffee table in front of her and pressing her face against the now cracked glass. "Now there are two ways we can proceed from here. You bring her here to me and I can finish this quickly. If you insist on delaying the inevitable I might have to have some fun with you. It's up to you."

The young Lawson began to tremble. "I'm..." suddenly her omni-tool began to buzz.

The doctor smiled when he saw it was Miranda calling. He threw Ori back to the ground and aimed his gun at her again. "How fortuitous. Answer it and get her over here. Give her any hint and I will kill you."

Oriana nodded and answered the call. "H-Hello?"

Miranda's response came with concern. "Ori? Are you alright?"

Cardo smiled when he heard his prey's voice.

"I'm fine, Miranda. Just hanging out at home."

"Are you sure?"

Ori eyed the gun pointed at her. "Positive. What's up?"

"I'm calling to tell you Jack and I have to take care of something so we won't be able to attend your show. I'm sorry."

Cardo raised his pistol again. "Tell her to come over." he commanded again in a whisper.

"Hey, sis. Can you come over? I need to see you like right now."

"I thought you said you were alright?"

"I am. It's just boy trouble you know, could use a shoulder to cry on and all that junk. Which reminds me we're still on for lunch tomorrow with father right?"

There was a brief pause before Miranda answered. "Of course we are. And I'll be over soon."

Right after they hung up Cardo smacked Ori with the butt of his gun. The girl gasped with the impact and a trail of blood spewed from the fresh gash in the side of her head and dripped down to the couch cushions. "Good girl." Cardo said. "I have to thank you for bringing her right to me. You've been very useful to me. Goodbye."

Oriana knew she had to stall. Her life depended on it. "Wait!"

"Wait? Wait for what?"

"Miranda's not the only one who's after your work."

"You lie."

"Miranda knows not me."

"Then I don't need you."

"Yes you do!" Oriana's voice cracked with fear. "Y-You do. Miri won't tell you if you kill me. She won't!"

Cardo sighed. "I suppose there's no reason I can't wait."

* * *

As soon as Miranda ended the call with her sister she ran for her luggage and began tearing out it's contents and randomly throwing them about the room as she searched. Jack was packing up the kill supplies and arched an eyebrow when she saw how frantic her lover had become. "What the fuck? What's wrong?!" she cried.

"Ori is in trouble! I need to help her!" Miranda shouted.

"What the hell are you talking about? You just talked to her?"

"She asked me if we were still on for dinner with Father tomorrow! Oriana is smart, that's a code. Someone is at her home."

"Who would want to hurt your sister? The kid wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Who else?! He must have figured out we're after him."

"How?"

Miranda advanced on her lover. "I don't know, Jack! Perhaps he had a surveillance system I didn't wipe when we left his apartment." Lawson buried her face in her hands. "Stupid! I should have triple checked everything when we left! I need to go now!" she scrambled back to her bag and finally found what she was searching for. Miranda removed the pistol and holster and secured it to her hips.

"Well i'm coming with you." Jack said.

"No."

"Bullshit! You're not killing this asshole without me."

"I need you somewhere else."

* * *

Miranda sprinted down the apartment buildings hallway as she unholstered her pistol and extended the barrel before arriving outside her sister's door. She took a deep breath before bringing up her barriers and opening the door expecting the worst and hoping for the best.

Oriana was on the ground with a bleeding gash in her head, a rag was shoved in her mouth and her hands were bound. Her screams were muffled when she cried her big sister's name. Cardo lifted his gun and aimed it at Miranda who did the same. "Drop it or she dies!" Cardo screamed.

"That isn't happening!"

"I do not bluff you whore!" Cardo aimed at Oriana on the floor. Miranda could have taken him then but not without risking both Jack's revenge and her sister's life so she relented.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you threatened my daughter's life and my life's work!"

"How do you figure? You're the one experimenting on her!"

"I'm trying to save her you idiot!" Cardo screamed and aimed his gun back at Miranda.

"You're delusional."

"If my work was interrupted by fools like you with your childish notions of petty morality, I would lose everything! I'd lose her. You don't understand. Nobody understands."

"I understand that you're a sadistic bastard who's torturing his daughter for his own legacy. It reminds me of someone I used to know."

"I have to do this. I must complete my work and i'm not letting you stop me!"

Miranda narrowed her eyes and forced herself to focus on the doctor and not her sobbing sister. "Fine. Put the gun down and walk away and I'll forget all about this. You're not worth the trouble."

"You must think me an idiot." Cardo spat. "As if you'll just walk away. I know your type, Lawson. You're short sighted, unable to see the big picture." Cardo trained his gun on Miranda's head. "I think it's time someone began to cleanse the gene pool of filth like you." But before Cardo could fire Oriana lunged towards the man and tackled him to the ground causing his gun to discharge harmlessly.

Miranda darted towards the struggling pair as Cardo clawed at Ori's face with his robotic hand. Miranda ripped the man off of her sister and threw him to the ground with such force his gun was knocked from his remaining organic hand. Lawson sprang for the fallen weapon as Cardo reached out towards it but Miranda was too quick.

Lawson aimed the duel pistols at the Doctor and instead of surrendering he shoved her back with both hands. Miranda almost smiled as she watched the doctor sprint out of the apartment with with his tail between his legs. But there was no time to celebrate her triumph. She set the pistols down and knelt to the ground beside Ori and immediately untied her hands and removed the rag from her mouth. "I'm so sorry, Ori." She said as she wrapped her arms around her sister. "Did he hurt you?"

"Miranda!" Ori sobbed into her sister's shoulder. "I was so scared!"

"I know. It's my fault, this is all my fault." she said as she stroked her sister's hair in an attempt to comfort her.

"He was going to...oh god!" Oriana sobbed wildly and Miranda held her as tight as she could and felt tears start to well in her own eyes.

"I'm so sorry."

Ori pulled her face from her sister's shoulder and their blue eyes locked. "You saved me!"

"I always keep my promises."

Oriana lips perked up in a weary half smile and she wiped a few tears from her eyes. "You should go after him. I'll be alright."

"Don't worry about him."

The young Lawson sniffed back more tears. "You're just gonna let him go?"

"I always have a plan."

* * *

Cardo was sweating as he rode the elevator up to his apartment. He'd need to disappear for a while. Just until he figured out how to deal with this woman. He couldn't stick around and wait for the police to show up or for Lawson to try and steal his work or whatever her angle was. He still didn't know what the troublesome woman was after but he knew she was a problem.

He should have killed that girl when he had the chance. "Fuck!" He screamed and slammed his metal prosthetic into the elevator wall and denting it. This was a set-back he couldn't afford. Finally the lift arrived at the top floor and the man sprinted down the hall towards his apartment.

He wasted no time getting inside. When the door slid open he saw the apartment shrouded in darkness but he still immediately ran to the bedroom. His daughter was asleep in her twin bed and he ran to her side and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Clara, sweetheart, You need to wake up! We need to leave!" but the girl didn't wake. "Clara! We need to go now!" he still got no response. But the girl's chest still rose and fell with her steady intake of breath. "Clara!" he screamed as loud as he could.

Suddenly a strong arm reached out from the darkness behind him and wrapped around his throat. Cardo choked as he was dragged backwards out of the bedroom. His attacker smashed his face into the marble counter of his kitchenette and dazed him. He fell to the tiled floor before they began to pummel his face with punches. He started to see double, only able to just make out the shadowed form that loomed over him. He desperately threw a punch only to get his arm caught in a iron grip. Cardo yelped in pain. Still his attacker said nothing as a strong biotic field manifested around him.

The doctor was thrown across the apartment like a rag doll and into the tiny living room. He crashed into the vidscreen and shards of glass dug into the flesh of his face. Blood trickled down his cheek as he crawled back on his elbows, his eyes wide with terror as the figure stalked towards him, her face illuminated in blue light.

"Remember me?" Jack asked with uncontrollable rage.

"Oh my god, No!" Cardo cried like a scared child as he jumped to his feet but Jack snatched him in a chokehold.

"You're not going anywhere. It's long overdue I fix a mistake I made the last time we saw each other you piece of shit!"

Cardo just barley managed to choke out words. "Zero, wait! You don't understand-"

"My name is Jack!" she cried before slamming him into the wooden coffee table and shattering it under the force.

"J-Jack!" he corrected himself while blood streamed down his battered face. "Please..."

She didn't give him time to recover before stomping on his ribs and breaking more than a couple. She grabbed him by the collar of his blood stained shirt and pulled him up before she delivered a powerful punch that broke the man's nose. The doctor fell back to the pile of shattered wood and glass and moaned in pain while the hot crimson ran down his face from his broken nose. Jack reached for a shard of glass on the ground from the shattered vidscreen and stabbed it into the Man's shoulder burying it deep into his flesh.

The man howled in agony and Jack rose to her feet and left him in a crumpled bloody mess among the debris of the room. She went to Miranda's supply bag and removed the last remaining injection after using the first on Cardo's daughter. She raised the needle as she advanced on the the Doctor.

"Stop!" Cardo screamed.

Jack sunk the needle into his neck and pressed down on the plunger. "Not yet you bastard. I'm not even close to finished with you."

* * *

**Notes- Sorry this one took forever! I had a lot going on this week in addition to writing the two side projects I released. If you haven't already you may wanna check out my Chuck crossover I did for April Fools. So yeah, things have finally started to come together here. This story is already twice as long as I planned but we should be done pretty soon. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, there's much more left to do in the next :) **

**Please tell me your thoughts in the reviews! And have an amazing day. **


	9. Revenge

**The Year 2177**

**The Planet Yamm**

Jack was shaking as she walked down the streets of New Karnak. The colony capital city wasn't exactly highly populated but Jack had never seen so many people. More of the colonists looked at her as she fumbled past them. Her clothes were tattered and her skin was still stained with dried blood.

Overwhelmed was the only word fit to describe the way the young girl felt. And as she ran down the narrow streets she spotted an open door belonging to a small corner shop. Jack sprinted inside the store and out of the freezing cold air. There was nobody else in sight and the girl's head rapidly shot back and forth as she scanned her surroundings.

Colorful packages were neatly arranged on shelves in front of her and Jack carefully walked towards them before a loud clearing of the throat made her spin on her heels in surprise. Jack cried out and fell on to her butt. Before her stood a tall creature with a strange bone plated face covered in white markings. He extended a clawed three fingered hand to her. "Forgive me. I didn't mean to startle you, human. Are you alright?"

"W-What the fuck are you?" Jack asked with more curiosity than fear.

The creature's mandibles twitched. "Um...a turian? Are you feeling alright? Perhaps I should call a doctor..."

"No!" Jack screamed and the turian's eyes widened. "No doctors."

"Okay." The alien glanced at the girl's emaciated body. He could see her ribs through the holes in her tattered clothes. "How long has it been since you ate?"

Jack got to her feet and took a few steps back from the man. "Few days. What's it to you?"

The turian's eyes seemed to almost soften. "You should eat something." he glanced to his right and removed one of the colorful packages from the shelves and handed it to Jack. "Here. This should be safe for you to eat."

She snatched it from the man and looked at the package. "What the fuck are cookies?"

"Some human thing. I think it's like a treat."

She looked him up and down. "What do I have to do for this?"

"It's on the house."

"Bullshit. What do you want from me?"

The threw up his hands. "Nothing. I swear. Just...eat something."

Jack clutched the package close to her chest and stayed silent.

"You have a name, human?"

Her response came too eagerly. "Jack!"

"Alright, well you need help with anything else, Jack?"

A smile spread across the skinny girl's face. Nobody had ever called her by the name before. "No."

"Well I'll be behind the counter if you think of anything. And make sure you eat." The turian walked back down the aisle and Jack looked down to the package.

With shaking hands she reached out and peeled off the plastic cover revealing four rows of chocolate chip cookies. She'd never eaten anything but nutrient paste for as long as she could remember. She leaned in and sniffed like a wild animal before she grabbed one from the package and brought it to her lips.

Jack took her first bite and her eyes widened. What was in actuality a rather shitty cookie had become the single greatest experience of Jack's young life. She devoured the rest of the cookie in seconds and reached for another and another until her blood stained shirt was covered in crumbs. Tears welled in her eyes as she tore through the package and she sobbed loudly. She was free, after all the pain, all the years of suffering and experimentation and abuse, Jack was free.

She laughed as she swallowed the last cookie and wipe the tears from her cheeks. When she looked up she saw the turian staring at her, the plates above his eyes raised in a confused expression. But she didn't care what the strange alien thought of her. She stepped outside into the cold night, it had apparently started to rain but she didn't mind. She reached down and removed her ragged shirt and threw it down into a puddle before leaning her head back to let the rain beat down on her face and bare chest.

She'd prove him wrong. She'd prove them all wrong. She wouldn't become what those fucks expected of her. And she would survive.

* * *

**Illium **

**2188 **

Doctor Cardo's eyes slowly opened and he found himself in a dark room. As he waited for his eyes to adjust he moved to jump to his feet before realized he was securely fastened to a metallic chair.

He recognized the room he was now in as his very own private lab. He looked down at himself to find that his robotic arm had been removed. "What the hell is this?!"

Suddenly from out of the darkness his fake metal arm was thrown to the floor in front of him. "What the fuck does it look like?"

Cardo drew in short panicked breaths as his eyes adjusted and he was able to make out the girl he had hoped to never see again starring at him with murder in her eyes. "Hello, Zero. It's been some time. Eleven years to be exact." He tried to put on a brave face but he sounded just as terrified as he was despite his attempts.

Jack pushed off the wall she was leaning on and sauntered towards the man. "So you do remember me."

"How could I forget? You were my greatest creation."

"Fuck off!" Jack screamed and he flinched. "I wasn't your creation you piece of shit."

"You have to understand it was never about you. It was about the good of all humanity. Sacrificing the few for the betterment of our entire race! Even you have to appreciate that."

"That is the most pathetic excuse I have ever heard." Jack grabbed a needle off the tray next to the interrogation chair and shoved it into the man's arm. "Was it for humanity when you raped me?" she asked as she plunged the injection inside the man.

Cardo's body began to violently shake and drool spilled out of his mouth. "Was it for humanity when you beat me?!" Jack screamed as she smashed her fist into to man's already bloodied face as he spasmed.

Finally Cardo fell still and the pain of the injection burned across his entire body. "How bout when you forced me to kill?" Jack took hold of one of his fingers and bent it all the way back, snapping the bone with loud crack and Cardo howled in agony. "Or held me under water?" she snapped another finger. "Was all that for the betterment of our race?"

"Things got out of hand back on Pragia. I-I never intended...listen, I-I'm sorry!" Cardo whimpered. The pain was already almost too much to bear.

"Oh you're sorry? Fuck me you can't be serious. After all the shit you did you think you can just tell me you're sorry? You don't get to be sorry."

"Please! You can't do this!"

"I can." Jack reached for another injection and plunged it into the doctor. "And I will." she sneered as Cardo spasmed again. "How's it feel, asshole? I never knew the name for this shit but I still remember how it felt. Hurts doesn't it? Like acid pumping through your veins."

Cardo whimpered in pain as Jack took a step back. "Please..."

"You say that to me again and I'll cut your tongue out. You don't deserve the right to beg. You don't deserve anything but a slow and painful death which I intend on delivering." Jack circled around him slowly. "Where to begin, maybe I'll chop off that worm between your legs and shove it down your throat. Then we can see how you like being forced to suck your cock."

Then there was a loud knock on the door and Cardo screamed "Help!" just before Jack shoved a rag in his mouth and silenced him.

"Shut the hell up." Jack spat just before leaving the room behind.

The tatooed woman opened the apartment door and reveled her tall lover on the other side. Miranda looked relieved to see her and Jack realized she was as well. "Took you long enough." Jack said.

"I came as fast as I could." Miranda ran a comforting hand along Jack's arm. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" She asked as she glanced over her lover's shoulders and into the ruined apartment.

"I'm fine. We fucked this place up good though."

Miranda walked inside and Jack closed the door behind her. "Don't worry about it. I know someone who can come and clean up after us. It'll be like we were never here."

"Who?"

"Someone who doesn't ask a lot of questions." Miranda said. "Where is he?"

Jack jerked her head towards the door to the private lab. "In there. Figured i'd wait for you. I strapped him in to that damn chair. Bastard's not going anywhere."

"Well that seems appropriate."

"How's your sister?"

Miranda crossed her arms and looked down. "He hurt her, Jack."

For a moment Cardo left Jack's mind. "Is she okay?"

"She will be. But...it never should have happened. Ori shouldn't have been dragged into this mess."

"That's my fault."

"No it's mine. Oriana is my responsibility, not yours. I promised her I'd keep her safe and I...I made a mistake. She could have died, Jack and it would have been because of me."

"Bullshit. It would have been because of him! And we'll make that asshole pay for it."

Miranda glanced at the bedroom. "What about the girl?"

"I gave her the shot like you told me to."

"Good." Miranda picked up the photo of Cardo and his daughter. "Still no second thoughts?"

"What do you want me to say, cheerleader? It's too fucking late to back out now. And I have no intention of letting him go."

Miranda set the photo down. "Then let's finish this."

Lawson moved towards the door and Jack's hand caught her. "Wait. I need to say some shit to you..."

"What is it?"

"Thank you for this. I...I couldn't ever repay you for what you've done."

"Believe me, Jack. You have." Miranda gestured to the closed door. "Shall we?"

Jack walked back inside the kill room and Cardo screams were muffled by the rag still stuffed in his mouth but his cries silenced when he saw Miranda follow Jack inside and shut the door. The convict ripped the rag out of the man's mouth and he spit blood on the floor. "What the hell? I should have figured you were behind this, Lawson!"

Miranda smirked. "Hello again, Doctor. I see you've already met my fiancee."

"Fiancee?!" Cardo spat like it was a joke. "You can't be serious."

Jack slapped him. "Surprised, asshole?"

"That an animal like you would marry a whore like her? Not entirely."

Lawson narrowed her eyes and Jack took hold of one of the man's remaining unbroken fingers. "Not a very smart thing for you to say." she said before snapping it.

Cardo screamed in pain. "Bitch!"

"I'll never understand people like you." Miranda said.

"Of course you won't. You're so nearsighted it'd be sad if it wasn't so infuriating! People like you hold this galaxy back. I'm sure you think me some villain. As if the things I've done don't weigh heavily on me."

"I'm gonna fucking cry." Jack said.

"I've made choices, not all of them were easy. And not all the things i've done are things i'm proud of."

"You know I would have almost believed that if you hadn't been doing the same damn thing to your own daughter." Miranda said.

"It isn't the same!" Cardo cried.

Jack rolled her eyes and grabbed another needle. "You're pathetic. We saw it ourselves. You're experimenting on that kid just like how you fucked with me!"

"I'm not trying to experiment on my daughter! I'm trying to save her life!"

Miranda stopped Jack from injecting him again. "Explain." Lawson snapped.

"Clara is sick. She's very sick. She's...she's dying."

Jack looked to Miranda. "So you're cure is torturing the girl?"

"She suffered direct element zero exposure when she was very young. Before the incident I tried every day to forget about what we did on Pragia to you." he looked to Jack. "But I didn't have a choice. I had to try and replicate my work, it was the only way I could save her."

"Bullshit! Hospitals all over the galaxy see eezo exposures every day." Miranda snapped.

"And how many survive direct and extreme exposure, Miss Lawson? You can call me whatever you want but I love my daughter! She's the only thing good I ever brought into this world. And I'm not putting her life in the hands of some fucking alien!"

"And all that back at the university about your work? What a coincidence you happen to be working on creating biotic power when your daughter gets exposed to element zero." Miranda said.

Jack spit on the man. "You used her as your fucking guinea pig!"

Cardo's head dipped. "It was an accident. The dosage was meant for me and she...she got in the way. I never wanted to hurt her." tears began to roll down the man's cheeks.

"So now she's dying because you're too proud to get her proper help." Miranda said.

"She's getting the same treatment with me that she would at a hospital! Better than. I've kept her alive longer than any other subject with her level of exposure. Well...except for you." He looked back over to Jack. "I'm just trying to save her. Whatever you think of me you...you're probably right to think it. But Clara is innocent. She doesn't know about any of this."

"She's about to have a rude fucking awakening." Jack said.

Cardo jolted forward against his bonds. "No! You can't! Please! She can't know what i've done."

"The kid should know who her father really is." Jack said.

"Jack, I'm begging you! She can't ever know! It would destroy her."

Jack shook her head. "Suddenly you care about taking away a girl's innocence. How convenient."

Cardo turned to Miranda. "Lawson, you can't do this! Just let me go! I'm the only one who can save her. You can't let this animal's petty revenge cost my daughter her life!"

Jack growled and seized the man around the throat. "The girl's better off dead than being raised by you."

Miranda stayed silent as she watched her lover choke the man out. "So I was right!" Cardo rasped out.

"What the hell did you say?" Jack screamed and released him.

"I was right all along. You're nothing but a killer after all. You'll just murder me and forget the consequences."

Jack howled in rage and grabbed the knife from the supply bag and brought the edge of the blade to Cardo's throat. "This isn't murder. This is fucking justice."

"Two sides of the same coin, Zero."

"Why should you deserve to live after what you did?" Jack punched him hard in the face. "After all the kids you killed?" Another punch. "After what you've done to her?" A third punch and Cardo's face was now barely recognizable.

"Do what you will." Cardo wheezed. "I'm done explaining myself to you two. But don't you dare think yourself any better than I."

Jack gritted her teeth and dug the blade slightly into his flesh and coated the edge with blood. Cardo flinched and shut his eyes just before Jack removed the knife. "Shit..."

"Jack?" Miranda said.

"He's right, cheerleader. He's...he's fucking right."

"Glad you saw rea-" Cardo began but was stopped when Jack smashed her fist into his mouth.

"Shut up!" She screamed before shoving the rag back in his mouth. "We're not letting him go but...killing him won't change shit. What happened to me isn't going away. So fuck it I'm not gonna give him the satisfaction." She grabbed the doctor by the throat again. "You hear that you bastard? You were wrong about me. About everything! I'm more than just some savage bitch." She looked over her shoulder to Miranda. "And I found someone who loves me." she released him. "Have fun in prison, asshole. We'll see how like you being raped. I'm done with this."

Miranda smiled and roped her arms around Jack. "I'll take care of everything. Why don't you go back to our room?"

"Sounds good." Jack moved to leave but Miranda spoke up again.

"And Jack?" The convict turned. "I'm proud of you. And I love you."

Jack smiled. "I know, cheerleader." And with that she left the apartment and headed for the hotel.

Miranda turned back to the doctor and removed the rag from his mouth. "How bout that. Forget all about this, Lawson and I'll make it worth your while." Cardo said.

"Between the two of us, I never was convinced Jack would kill you. She's not what you think her to be she's...she's so much more." Miranda picked up the knife from the table and inspected her reflection in the blade. "But I'm not Jack."

Cardo's eyes widened in fear. "No! You can't! My daughter!"

"I can't exactly turn you in to the police after all this. And I turn you free and that girl is as good as dead. It's only a matter of time."

"You bitch! Whore! Cunt!" Cardo screamed as he struggled against his bonds with all his might.

"You made a mistake when you came after Oriana. You raped and tortured the woman I love when she was a child. And frankly you disgust me." Miranda said as she loomed over the man. "You remind me of my own father." Miranda stabbed the blade into Cardo's stomach. "I hated my father."

Blood spurted past Cardo's lips and ran down his chin. "No." He whimpered. "Clara..."

"I'll take care of the girl. Better than you ever could I imagine. Men like you...you never change."

"You think you're better?" Cardo asked as more blood spilled from his mouth.

"Yes." Miranda said before removing the knife from the man's stomach and stabbing it through his throat and yanking it to the right slitting open his throat and releasing a geyser of crimson.

Miranda took a step back from the dying man so to not get any blood on herself and watched as the man bled out, choking out wet gurgling sounds before his eyes finally rolled back in his head. "Good riddance."

Lawson opened her omni-tool and called a number that she didn't dare keep among her contacts. After a few moments her call was answered. "Nos Astra Squeaky Cleaning services." A friendly sounding salarian said on the other end.

"I need a number 63 at the address I'm sending."

The man's response was quick. "I see. Will this require an extended cleaning crew?"

Miranda looked at the blood stained corpse in front of her. "Yes."

"Ah! Very good. A crew will be with you soon and thank you for choosing Nos Astra Squeaky cleaning!"

Miranda hung up and she made her way over to Cardo's terminals. She brought up his research notes. The doctor hadn't lied, Clara was suffering from extreme eezo exposure. But it wasn't anything compared to what she brought Shepard back from. It took her some time but eventually she was able to work upon Cardo's findings and create a way to suppress any more damage through a series of treatments she could receive at any hospital. She may never be cured of it but she'd survive. Miranda finished up her work and copied it to an empty OSD.

Then she stared at the screen. All the evidence of Cardo's past was on that terminal, all the justification she had for killing him and all the truth Clara would ever need to know just who it was her father really was. But some things were better left forgotten. Miranda wiped the terminal's memory and got to her feet. "You're welcome." she said to Cardo's corpse as she left the bloody lab behind.

She paused when she passed the bedroom and peeked her head inside. Clara was asleep under the covers, undisturbed and unaware of the night's events. Miranda carefully stepped inside and took a moment to see the second girl she had saved. "You'll be okay. I promise." She whispered before there was a knock on the door.

Miranda headed for the door and covered her face with one hand in a makeshift mask. She opened the door and found a small group of men in cleaning suits. She handed the OSD to a confused looking human. "Bring the girl in the bedroom to a hospital and give them that."

"What's in it for me?"

"25,000 credits."

The man smirked. "Deal."

Miranda pushed past them. "I'll wire the funds to you when the job is done."

"Where the fuck are you going?"

"I have a wedding to plan." Miranda answered.

* * *

**Notes- Okay so of course I couldn't let Cardo survive. I debated for a while with who should actually kill him but ultimately I think the kill belonged to Miri. Cardo was more a mirror of Henry Lawson and an obstacle for Jack to overcome as opposed to just someone for Jack to kill. Hopefully you agree. All of this will be wrapped up in the final chapter which I'm calling "The Wedding of Miranda Lawson" so I hope you'll tell me your thoughts in the reviews! :) **


	10. The Wedding of Miranda Lawson

**Unknown Location**

**The Year 2166**

Miranda's heart was racing but you wouldn't know how nervous the young girl was just from looking at her. Lawson stood straight with her arms tucked behind her back and her chin lifted high. She stood on a circular pad on the floor of a small all white room. The two operatives had ensured she had no idea where they had taken her but Miranda knew she was no longer on Earth. In fact she had a pretty good idea that she wasn't on any planet.

The two agents had insisted she leave Oriana with them just outside the room. Miranda hated doing it but she didn't have any other options, she doubted this man would do business with her if she was holding an infant. She told herself to be firm, to be the confident and strong young woman she always had to be. She knew that Cerberus was the best chance she and Ori had at escaping her father's grasp. Now all she had to do was show her worth.

A wall of blue light rose from the circular pad on the floor and she heard an electronic whir as the wall of light slowly began to display a projected image. Soon Miranda could hardly believe she was in the same room, it was almost as if she had be teleported to another space entirely but she knew better. Her heart jumped when she saw a pair of glowing blue eyes before her, a man who she guessed was in his 40s sat in a chair a few feet away from her dressed in a fine suit. It was hard to focus on the intimidating man when he sat in front of a massive red sun.

Miranda squared her shoulders. "Illusive Man?"

The man stared at her for a moment and took a sip from a high ball glass he had resting on the arm of his chair. "Miranda Lawson." he said in a smooth voice that sent chills down Miranda's spine.

"You already know who I am?"

The Illusive Man took a drag from the cigarette her had pinched between his fingers and exhaled slowly. "Few details escape me Miss Lawson. Henry Lawson's daughter was never one of them. Forgive my curiosity but what brings you to contact me?"

"You received the data I sent?"

"I did. It's impressive work but not an answer to my question."

"It's hardly a sample of what I can offer your organization." Miranda boasted.

The man took another drag from his smoke. "Cerberus isn't looking for any child recruits."

"Good. Because I'm no child."

"What exactly are you offering?"

"My loyalty and skills in exchange for protection."

The Illusive Man sipped on his liquor. "Protection of what?"

"Myself and my sister. You do that and i'm yours."

"An interesting proposal. But I'm not convinced it's a deal worth the sacrifices that come with it. Your father is one of Cerberus largest private investors. And his work is unmatched. That's why I hired him."

"My father is a fool." Miranda said and opened her omni-tool. "I'm sending you the rest of his work. This is what you were paying for."

A holoscreen appeared in front of the Illusive Man and he studied Henry Lawson's work. "I'm familiar with what I was paying him to do."

"What you were paying for was child's play. Here's mine." Miranda said before sending over her improved work.

The man's glowing blue eyes narrowed and he took a long drag. "I'm impressed."

"You should be. Nobody has mastered cellular manipulation on that level. I would know. That took me three hours."

"Surely an exaggeration." He said.

"I don't exaggerate. Give me a proper lab and some time and the possibilities are endless. What do you have to lose besides my father's cooperation?"

The Illusive Man studied her in silence before he spoke. "Your sister..."

"Oriana."

"My agents tell me she's no more than a newborn."

"You want me you need to find her protection...and a family. Somewhere she can have a normal life."

"That can be arranged. You recognize for her protection you would have to remove yourself from her life completely?"

Miranda's head dipped. "That's the way it has to be."

"Cerberus isn't the Alliance. We represent humanity in a way they never could. Our job is rarely clean or easy. Sacrifices need to be made for the good of all humanity. Are you prepared for that?"

"I'm adaptable." Miranda answered.

"I don't doubt it." He took another puff from his cigarette and the smoke trailed out the corner of his mouth. "I expect great things from you, Miranda."

"People always do." Miranda said just before the Illusive Man hit a button on the arm of his chair and the exchange was ended.

She stood in the empty room by herself again. She allowed herself a sigh of relief just before the door behind her slid open with a hiss. "Old man Illusive says you're good to go, doll." The male operative said from the doorframe. He has black hair that he kept swept back and a trimmed beard. She guessed he was in his 20's.

"Good." Miranda answered and walked past him she found the second female agent leaning against the wall outside with Oriana in her arms. She had a head of short cut black hair and a pair of piercing green eyes.

"Try not to be too excited, sweetheart." the woman said.

Miranda took Oriana from her and didn't say a word. "You're real chatty." the man commented.

The woman crossed her arms. "Great. So we're gonna be stuck in daycare with this kid?"

"Go easy on her, Jill. The boss seems to think she's special."

Jill Woodcomb rolled her eyes. "Why is it every time the old man finds a new pet we're the one's stuck training them?"

Victor Reed grinned and kissed his lover. "Cause he knows we're the best, beautiful."

Miranda tried to ignore the strange couple as she cradled Oriana in her arms.

"So does miss personality have a name?" Jill asked. They hadn't conversed much at all since the two agents had picked up Miranda and Oriana in NewCastle.

"Miranda Lawson." she informed them.

"I'm Victor, she's Jill. And it looks like you're gonna be stuck with us until the boss decides your training wheels can come off."

Lawson shrugged. "Very well."

"Better say goodbye to the baby." Victor said softly. "She can't exactly stay with us. The Illusive Man will probably find a home for her by the end of the week. In the meantime we should get her somewhere safe, the boss wants you to start immediately. He's creepy but he knows how to get shit done. The baby will be safe, we'll make sure of it personally."

Jill smiled. "Yeah. We're your new best friends, Miranda."

"Don't mind her. It's not so bad once you get the hang of things." Victor assured the young girl. "And we'll look out for you. Won't we?" He looked to his lover.

Jill shrugged. "Whatever."

"I'm not concerned." Miranda said without taking her eyes off the infant in her arms.

"At least she's got confidence." Jill mused.

"I'd like a moment alone to say goodbye to my sister."

"Take as long as you need." Victor said.

Jill roped her arms around the tall man. "Come on, handsome." she said before dragging him away.

Miranda sat down on a nearby bench built into the curved wall of the facility. Ori kicked and squirmed in her arms but she thankfully didn't cry, she only sucked on her fingers and made a few nonsensical noises. "You'll be safe. These people will find you a family and you'll have a normal life." Miranda sighed, "This is ridiculous you don't even understand what i'm saying... You won't even know I exist. That doesn't matter, all that matters is that you'll be safe from him. So, I suppose this is goodbye." Miranda didn't know what else to say and she didn't bother thinking of more when she realized how frivolous the words would be. She didn't want to get any more attached than she already was so she lifted her sister up and walked down the hall to the two agents.

Victor crossed his arms. "Ready, Ace?"

Miranda nodded and handed the baby to Jill. "Take care of her."

"She'll be fine. Don't worry about it." Jill said.

Miranda dipped her head as the agents walked away down the long hallway together. But her attention was grabbed when Victor called back to her. "Oh and Miranda, welcome to Cerberus."

* * *

**Illium 2188**

Miranda ran through the questions Jack might ask when she walked through the door of their hotel room. She was quickly reaching her destination and so she cleared her head with a sigh and opened her room.

Jack was laying on her back on the large king sized bed. The convict jumped to her feet when her lover entered. "Miranda. Is everything good?"

Lawson nodded. "Everything is fine. Don't worry."

"What about the girl?"

"She'll be okay. I arranged for her to get treatment."

"And the asshole himself?"

"Taken care of." Miranda answered.

Jack didn't need to hear more so she instead leaned in and captured her lover's lips in a fierce and passionate kiss that caught Miranda off-guard. When their lips came apart the convict roped her inked arms around the raven haired woman and held her close while she buried her face in her chest. Lawson ran her fingers through Jack's brown hair and leaned down to plant a kiss on the top of her head. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Okay?" Jack leaned back and met her eyes. "Cheerleader, i'm fucking great."

Miranda smiled and kissed her love on the cheek. "I'm glad."

"You really pulled through for me. You always do."

"There's nothing I wouldn't do for you."

"Still, That didn't go like I had planned."

"Do you regret letting him live?" Miranda asked.

"No...I'm glad I did. If it wasn't for you Cardo's blood would have been redecorating his shit hole apartment by now. But you've made me more than that." Jack sat down on the bed. "Let me ask you something."

Miranda laid down beside her and the convict rolled over to wrap her arms around the woman. "What's on your mind?" Miranda asked as they cuddled.

"When this started. You know us. When did this become about more than fucking for you?"

"You mean when did I know I had fallen for you?" Jack nodded. "You remember that night you called me asking to come over after that board meeting?"

The convict smirked. "Of shit yeah I do. I was so fucking horny after listening to those old assholes ramble on for hours. But when I came over you were all sick right?"

Miranda nodded. "And instead of leaving you came inside and stayed with me. You took care of me. Nobody had ever done that for me. It was the first night in my life that I stopped feeling alone."

"I was sick for a week after that." Jack reminisced.

"I knew that night that I cared about you." Miranda stroked Jack's hair. "That I loved you."

Jack rolled over on top of Miranda and kissed her as she unzipped the side of Lawson's white catsuit and began to peel her out of it. "Then let's get the fuck off this planet. Forget all about this shit and get married. Cause I don't want to ever wake up without you, cheerleader."

* * *

**Vancouver Gardens- A few months later...**

"What the fuck?!"

"Jack, didn't you try this thing on before tonight?" Kaidan Alenko asked his mostly naked friend.

"Miranda picked it out. She didn't say it was fucking impossible to put on!" Jack huffed as she held out the ridiculous white dress in front of her. "Get off your ass and help me."

Alenko couldn't help but chuckle. "What the hell am I gonna do? Believe it or not I've never put a dress on."

"Don't lie to me, eyebrows." Jack joked.

Her best man rolled his eyes. "Okay, we can figure this out." Kaidan took the heavy dress from his friend and found the hole in the bottom. "Maybe I could just pull it over your head?"

There was a knock on the door and Jack shouted "Come in." without giving it much thought as Kaidan tried to lower the dress down over her head.

"What the hell?!" A familiar voice shouted in amusement.

Jack peeked up from the folds of white cloth and smiled when she found Commander Shepard standing in the doorframe with her muscular arms crossed. She wore a blue dress of her own that stopped a couple of inches above her knees. Her pretty, freckled and scared face was made up wonderfully and Jane began to laugh at the sight of Kaidan trying to stuff Jack into her wedding dress. "Commander, I think we could use a hand." Kaidan said.

"Duh." Shepard chuckled. "Give it a rest, Alenko. This is a girl's job."

Kaidan stepped back as Shepard took the dress off his hands. "No argument here."

"And how is a the blushing bride to be?" Shepard asked.

"Bite me, Shepard." Jack snapped when she heard the teasing nature in her old friend's voice.

"Some things never change." Shepard said as she laid the dress down on the ground and formed a hole in the center. "Step inside." Jack did as ordered and Shepard lifted the dress up and helped her into it. "Never thought i'd see the day."

"You and me both." Kaidan added.

"Yeah yeah." Jack smiled. "For the record the dress was the cheerleader's idea."

As Shepard finished tying up the back she turned her friend to the mirror. "But look at how beautiful you are."

"Wow..." Kaidan sat stunned when he eyed the reflection along with them.

Jack eyed her reflection. "I guess it looks okay..." She was struggling hard to suppress that deeply hidden feminine side of herself that wanted to admit that she looked completely gorgeous.

"Oh come on." Shepard elbowed her playfully. "You look amazing. Doesn't she, Kaidan?"

Alenko nodded. "Yes Ma'm."

"Don't get used to it." Jack said as she failed to hide the blush on her cheeks.

Shepard walked over and roped her arm around Kaidan's shoulders. "I tell you Alenko, it was only yesterday I was walking into Miranda's office to stop these two from 'smearing the walls' with each other."

Alenko chuckled and offered his hand to Jack. "Guess we better get you out there."

* * *

There was a slight breeze in the air that ruffled the pedals of the flowers beds that flanked a large white gazebo under the stars. The wedding party stood in their positions and as Jack stood in her white dress the reality finally sunk in. After today her entire life would be shared with Miranda. When she was a little girl on Pragia she never could have pictured this. Hell, she could hardly picture a life outside of the Teltin facility let alone that one day after all the shit she's been through she'd find happiness.

It's still feels surreal that she's turned into this person. That the crazy biotic bitch who had killed more people that she could remember would be settling down into some sort of normal life. No more killing, no more pain, no more anger. Was such a thing even possible?

Jack was dragged from her thoughts when a hand was placed on her shoulder. She turned and found Kaidan smiling at her. Her best man looked handsome in his tux the gay woman had to admit. "Nervous, Jack?" he asked.

"Fuck no." Jack lied, aware at how strange she must look in her girly white wedding dress. But her words seemed to convince the man and he chuckled.

"I still can't believe my girls are really getting married." Kaidan said with a big grin.

All the smiles were making Jack uneasy. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Hell yeah it is!" Shepard protested from behind her.

"We're all just honored to be here." A breathy soft voice called from behind Shepard and the human moved out of the way to reveal Liara T'Soni with a small asari baby in her arms.

"Not like the cheerleader and I had any other friends to invite." Jack said as her eyes found the other silent members in attendance. Jacob Taylor, and Rahna Berk stood a respectful distance away but Miranda had insisted they both come. She had been quick to point out that Jacob had saved her life long before she ever met Jack and despite his rather boring personality he was a good man.

Jack stared down the aisle. As her eyes were fixed on the end she realized she was nervous as she waited for Miranda to walk down the aisle.

* * *

"Oh my gosh..." Oriana's eyes widened when her sister stepped out from behind the partition.

Miranda Lawson smiled and twirled her long flowing white wedding dress for her little sister. "How do I look?" she asked already knowing the answer.

"Holy crap, Miri! You look gorgeous!"

"Thank you, Ori."

"Jack is gonna fall in love all over again when she sees you in that, sis."

The older Lawson chuckled. "I'm glad you could make it."

"Are you kidding me?! Miranda, you're getting married! Of course your little sister is gonna be there to walk you down the aisle." Oriana hugged her sister tightly.

Miranda held her close. "It means more to me than I could ever say that you're here to do that."

"Not like our father was going to." Ori joked. "But you were there for me long before I even knew you existed. What kind of sister would I be if I wasn't here for you now?

Miranda smirked and turned to the mirror again. "The dress really looks okay?"

"Miri, you're beautiful. Plus it's nice to see you in something that's not a catsuit for once in your life. Seriously sis, how do you not get wedgies like all the time?"

Lawson chuckled. "They're comfortable!" Miranda watched her little sister as she laughed and her eyes found the scars on her face. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." Ori said. "Thanks to you."

"Please don't thank me. That was entirely my fault."

"You still saved me, Miranda. Just like you always have."

"And always will." Miranda said.

"Whatever happened to that nut job? He disappeared from the university after that."

"No idea." Miranda lied and turned to inspect her reflection in the mirror. She really did look beautiful, her face had been made up wonderfully as had her raven black hair. And the dress was the remarkable. But her sister is what really tied her heart in knots. Oriana was in a pretty frilly white dress as her maid of honor. Her hair was cut above her shoulders leaving the new scars Cardo had left on her face visible. She thought of watching Victor and Jill take her sister away all those years ago. How she never thought she'd see her again, and yet here she was by her side at her own wedding.

"Well we better get out there, Miri. Don't wanna keep your bride to be waiting." Miranda extended a hand to her little sister and Oriana took it. "Let's go get you married."

* * *

**Notes- Okay so this was meant to be one chapter originally but I ended up writing over 5,000 words! So instead I decided to split it into two making the next chapter the real final one. Plus as an added bonus I can add even more on to the next chapter that I originally couldn't give it's large word count. You can expect that final chapter very soon as it's mostly already written :)**

**I hope you enjoyed part 1 of the wedding and the final flashback. Please tell me what you thought in the reviews.**


	11. The Wedding of Subject Zero

**Vancouver Gardens- 2188**

When Miranda Lawson stepped out of the changing tent and into the small wedding venue that had been set up for them in the gorgeous Vancouver Gardens suddenly it all became real. She saw Jack's face light up when their eyes met from across the short stretch between them. The tattooed convict looked surprisingly beautiful in the wedding dress she had picked out for her. Oriana's arm was linked under Miranda's as they walked towards the gazebo occupied by her closest and only friends.

As her sister helped her up the steps Miranda couldn't keep her eyes off Jack and when they were finally before each other Lawson took the shorter woman's hands in her own. "You look beautiful." she commented with a smile.

Jack always loved it when she called her that. "You're not looking too bad yourself, cheerleader." Jack had to fight the urge to kiss her then.

Miranda arched an eyebrow when she noticed Kaidan dabbing at his eyes behind Jack. But her attention was returned to her bride when Shepard stepped forward. "Jack." She nodded to the convict. "Miranda. When I first met you two if someone would have told me I'd be standing here today about to marry you girls I never would have believed them. But being here now and seeing you two together, I can't believe there was ever a time when I thought differently than I do today. You two belong together."

Miranda smiled at her friends words. Some times she herself could hardly believe how she and Jack acted when they first met. Shepard continued as she looked to Liara. She had unsurprisingly been instructed to keep it simple. Miranda and Jack were never ones to get emotional in front of others and Shepard knew exchanging vows was simply out of the question for them. "We're gathered here today to celebrate the union of Jack and Miranda Lawson. Two women who I have grown to admire deeply and who I am proud to call my friends." The commander turned to the raven haired bride.

"Miranda Lawson, Since it is your intention to marry, Do you take Jack to be your lawful wedded wife to have and to hold from this day on, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"

Lawson's blue eyes met Jack's. "I do." she declared with total certainty.

Jane turned to the convict. "And Jack, Do you take Miranda Lawson to be your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day on, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"

Jack smiled from ear to ear. "Fuck yeah I do."

Shepard chuckled and looked over to Kaidan. "Does the best man have the rings?"

Kaidan's large eyebrows rose, his eyes slightly read with happy tears. "Yeah!" he reached into the pocket of his tux and produced two rings which he held out in his palm to Shepard.

Jane took them in her hand. "Today Miranda and Jack exchange these rings as confirmation to join their lives, to work at all times to create a life that is complete and unbroken and to Love each other unconditionally." she finished and distributed the rings to Miranda and Jack.

Miranda slipped hers over Jack's finger first and the tattooed woman in white followed close after. "With this you have pledged your love for each other. And by the power invested in me I now pronounce you wife and wife. You may kiss your bride."

Jack seized Miranda around the waist and pulled her in close just before their lips crashed together. Miranda wrapped her arms around Jack as the biotic slipped her tongue inside her mouth and kissed her tenderly. For a few moments the world around them disappeared and Miranda shut her eyes tight as she savored the taste of her lover's lips knowing that this was the start of a new chapter in her life. One where after all she'd been though she'd be happy, she'd be loved.

Jack held Lawson close to her and was only vaguely aware of the tears in her eyes. Never would she have ever believed she could be so happy. But holding the woman she loved in her arms and knowing that she'd never be alone again was overwhelming the typically angry woman with joy. Jack never wanted the moment to end but eventually their lips came apart and Miranda reached up to wipe Jack's cheeks dry. "I love you, Miranda." Jack said first and Lawson embraced her again.

Shepard and the other members of the wedding party erupted into applause. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Miranda and Jack Lawson." the Commander said.

* * *

A little later the small wedding had moved to a local upscale bar Miranda had rented out for the night in the city. Miranda and Jack sat at a table across from Kaidan Alenko and Rahna Berk. The dark skinned woman looked embarrassed by her already slightly intoxicated boyfriend but the man's drunkenness only amused Miranda and Jack.

"I just love you guys!" Alenko cried out and Jack laughed.

"We love you as well, Kaidan." Miranda promised.

"Especially when you're shitfaced." Jack added.

Kaidan turned his gaze to the drink in Rahna's hand. "You gonna drink that?" he asked.

Rahna passed it on. "It's all yours big guy." She chuckled as her lover began to drink her scotch.

"What is it with Alenko and getting drunk at weddings?" Jack asked as she recalled the events of Shepard's big day.

Miranda looked down at her own empty glass. "Need a refill?" she asked Jack before kissing her cheek.

"I'm good, cheerleader." Jack seized her lips in a hungrier kiss. "But don't be gone too long." she hissed with a smirk.

Miranda left the table behind and headed from the bar as she heard music begin to play from behind her. She turned towards the small stage and the former Cerberus operative smiled when she watched Oriana on stage playing a guitar and singing a sweet song into the mic. Her sister did have a beautiful voice, something she doubted they shared and had no intentions of confirming.

Ori's gaze found Miranda in the crowd and the young Lawson smiled as she sang. Miranda gave her an approving nod before she strolled up to the bar. "Vodka Martini with a twist." she ordered and the old human behind the bar went to work when Shepard and Liara strolled up.

"Congratulations, Miranda." Liara said. The asari held their infant daughter in her arms.

"Thank you, Doctor." Miranda said as Shepard leaned in for a sitting hug. "And thank you, Shepard."

"My pleasure." Jane said. "There was no way I was missing this."

"It was our wedding where this began if I recall correctly." Liara smiled.

"More or less." Miranda agreed. "So how's business?"

"On hold." Liara answered. "I have more pressing matters to attend to I am afraid. So the Shadow Broker has been on an indefinite vacation." The asari lifted her daughter higher in her arms and kissed the baby's cheek.

"What about Shaw?" Miranda pressed.

"I am afraid going directly to the Alliance is no longer possible given Shaw's new position on the council."

Shepard piped in. "And without Hackett we don't exactly have any more ins with the upper brass of the navy."

"I tried releasing the information in several leaks but it never went anywhere before the leaks all mysteriously disappeared. It is almost as if someone is assisting him in hiding the truth." Liara informed her.

Miranda sipped on her martini. "Seems plausible. Our new councilor must have friends. I've seen him around HQ since Hackett's death. He doesn't seem to recognize me or Jack. Or perhaps he's simply pretending not to. Either way I know he had something to do with it."

"We all do. But we'll deal with him eventually. I owe that much to Hackett." Shepard promised.

"Just make sure you call me when you do."

Jane nodded. "I promise. But until then I think you have somewhere else to be." the commander pointed across the bar as Jack Lawson stood on the open dance floor waiting for her wife.

Miranda smiled. "So it seems." she rose to her feet and padded across the dance floor. She extended her hand to her lover. "Care to dance?"

"Hell yeah." Jack roped one arm around Miranda's waist and they began to sway slowly to the beat of Oriana's music.

"Looks like we finally found you a last name, Jack."

"Don't let it go to your head, cheerleader. You still belong to me." She growled and pulled her close.

"I can live with that. I suppose you're stuck with me now."

"Guess I am." Jack agreed with a smirk. "So where you wanna get it?"

Miranda arched an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"Your ink, babe." Jack lowered her hands to the impressive swell of Miranda's ass. "Maybe you could get my name right here." She said as she squeezed her hands.

Miranda chuckled. "Try again."

Jack lifted Lawson's left arm and kissed along it. "How bout here then?"

"I think I could manage that. What would it say?"

"That you're way more than a crazy bitch like me ever deserved. You're amazing, you know that right?"

Miranda chuckled. "I do." she cupped Jack's face in her hands. "But so are you."

Jack stared into her eyes. "Where the fuck would I be without you, cheerleader?"

"No better off than I would be without you."

The shorter Lawson leaned in to whisper in her wife's ear. "Then why don't we go up to that hotel room we got. And I can rip that pretty dress off you and show you just how much I fucking love you all night long."

"After you."

Jack snaked her arm around Miranda's waist and they moved towards the exit before a familiar smiling face jumped in front of them. "You can't leave yet!" Oriana Lawson cried, panting for breath after running from the stage.

"We can't?" Miranda asked.

"Not until I do this." Ori wrapped her arms around both Miranda and Jack in an awkward bear hug.

"Take care of my big sis, Jack."

Jack nodded. "I will. So what are you gonna do now? Finish up shit at that university?"

Ori shrugged. "I guess. Miri would kill me if I didn't."

"That I would." Miranda said.

"After that. Who knows?" Oriana turned to her sister. "I'm so happy for you, Miri. For both of you. Now go on and have a great night you two. Just try not to pull any muscles." she teased.

"Ori!" Miranda cried as Jack laughed.

Oriana moved past them. "Catch ya later, sis!" but suddenly she turned. "Oh! Wait do you guys know where Commander Shepard went?"

Miranda rolled her eyes, "She's at the bar."

"Awesome! I'm gonna have her do my voice mail!" Ori ran off towards the bar and Jack wrapped her arm around Miranda again before they headed for their hotel.

* * *

When Jack and Miranda entered their hotel room their lips were together in an instant. Both roped their arms around each other as they kissed with both lust and unquestionable love. When they came apart Jack bit her plump lower lip and stared up at her wife. "Fuck, I want you, Miranda."

"First we have to get out of these." Miranda looked down to her expensive wedding dress before turning.

Jack wasted no time unlacing the back and with Miranda's help the raven haired woman was standing before her still clothed lover in the nude. "You're turn. Turn around." Miranda ordered.

"Fuck that!" Jack couldn't wait any longer so with a quick surge of her biotics she ripped her dress in two and pounced on the woman.

Miranda would have protested Jack's destruction of the dress but she knew the woman would have never worn it again, she was just touched Jack wore it for her in the first place. Jack laid her down on the bed without breaking their lips apart. Miranda held on to her as if her life depended on it and Jack had no objections to the close contact.

Once Miranda was on her back Jack moved down her body placing kisses as she went. She paused when she got to Lawson's chest and brought her hands up underneath her large breasts. Jack leaned in and wrapped her lips around the already erect tip of Miranda's right nipple and sucked while she teased the other between her fingers. Miranda arched her back and grabbed fistfuls of the sheets as she moaned. "Jack!" she cried.

The convict released her wife's breast from her lips with a wet pop and looked up. "Need something, cheerleader?" she teased.

"More!"

Jack brought boths hands up to tweak her hard nipples before opening her mouth to tease the woman she loved as she writhed on the sheets below her. "Gotta be more specific than that, babe."

"I want you inside me." Miranda begged.

The tattooed woman smirked and continued down Miranda's toned and beautiful body. When she was above Lawson's glistening folds she stopped to place a few more kisses up her inner thighs towards her target. The thick smell of Miranda's arousal filled Jack's nose and she felt herself growing wet. Slowly she brought a hand between her lover's thighs and dipped two fingers into her heat only slightly. "Is this what you want, cheerleader?"

"God yes!" Miranda cried.

Jack penetrated her deeper and began to pump her hand in and out as Lawson moaned above her. The convict never tired of pleasuring Miranda, the way she could undo that calm and collected attitude of hers in seconds with just two of her fingers. She vibrated those fingers with her biotics making Miranda release a sharp cry. "So close! I'm going to come!" Miranda screamed.

Jack increased the vibration of her fingers and leaned her head down. She swiped her tongue along her folds and captured the woman's swollen clit in her mouth before giving it a stimulating hum. Finally it was too much and Miranda's inner muscles clamped down around the convict's digits and the woman screamed as her muscles tensed before she fell back on to the mattress.

Jack sucked her wet fingers. "Never get tired of that taste." she commented before looking to her wife. "Already too tired?"

"In your dreams." Miranda hissed and seized the shorter woman by the shoulders before rolling her underneath herself. Lawson ran her fingers through Jack's hair. "I love you, Jack."

"I know you do. But shit," Jack kissed her again before finishing her thought. "Never stop telling me."

"How about I show you."

"Fuck yeah." Jack smiled as Miranda bent down to pleasure her wife with her tongue. As she went to work on the convict's clit Jack reached down and took her hands but instead of leading them up to her breasts as she often did she intertwined their fingers.

Miranda continued to eat her out and eventually she coaxed a powerful orgasm out of Jack. "Fuck!" The convict screamed as her back arched and her defined abdominal muscles tensed.

Miranda leaned back to catch her breath and before she could continue she caught Jack's eyes and found tears welling in them. "Jack? Are you alright?"

The woman only smiled and said. "I'm just happy, Miranda."

Miranda smiled back and climbed up, replacing her tongue with her thigh between her legs. The biotic grinded on Miranda's legs as Lawson kissed away her tears. "So am I, Jack." Miranda promised.

They made love all night only stopping a few times to catch their breath until eventually the Lawsons found themselves in a sweaty heap on top of the crumpled sheets of their hotel bed. Jack was passed out next to her wife but Miranda was still awake.

She watched her love as she slept. Her eyes traveled along her naked and tattooed body and stopped when they found the scars that were carved into her flesh. She thought of Cardo again, of how it felt to slit the doctor's throat and avenge her lover's innocence. She hadn't regretted killing the man at all. She'd do anything to keep Jack safe, anything to keep her by her side. She traced her finger along the ragged scar left on Jack's neck as she watched Jack sleep expecting for her to wake up at any moment from a terrible nightmare.

But for the first time in a long time, Jack slept through the night.

**Miranda and Jack's story will be concluded in "Rise of the Asari" **

* * *

**Notes- So ends "The Revenge of Subject Zero". I hope you found the fluff and romance of these last two chapters rewarding after all the hell I put these two through across this story. This was a very fun story to write, extremely difficult at times but also rewarding. I'm so thankful to the response you guys have had to it. All the reviews and favorites and everything mean so much to me and really are what keep me going. I want to thank ReavansMask for assiting me with this final chapter, thanks! Go read their stuff :) **

**Miranda and Jack's final adventure will begin this week in "Rise of the Asari" alongside Shepard, Liara, Tali, Kaidan, Felina and many more as they go up against the sinister Matriarch Aquilla for one final fight with the crew of the Normandy. In the meantime I strongly suggest you read my stories "The Veiled Asari" and "Shepard and Liara Versus the Alliance" if you haven't. I hope you'll join me for this series finale, I've been working on it for months to make it the best story I could ever possibly write. **

**Until then, thank you so much for reading. I hope you'll tell me what you thought of this story in the reviews and that you have an amazing day! **


End file.
